GitHub merge queue integration

Buildkite now has built-in support for GitHub merge queues. You can now opt into creating and canceling builds based on merge_group webhook events from GitHub. These builds are identified as merge queue builds in the Buildkite UI, and build behavior can be customized based on merge queue-specific attributes.

🆕 What’s new

• Create builds when a merge group is added to the merge queue: Rather than rely on triggering a build based on unique gh-readonly-queue/* branches, builds can now be triggered in response to a merge_group webhook event.
• Optionally cancel in-progress builds when a merge group becomes invalid: Cancel any running builds belonging to a destroyed merge group (e.g. when the merge queue entry is replaced due to a pull request being removed from the queue).
• Identify merge queue builds in the Buildkite UI: Merge queue builds are listed separately at the top of the pipeline page, and builds can be filtered by the merge queue they belong to.
• Vary pipeline behavior for merge queue builds: Utilize new build conditionals (build.merge_queue.base_commit, build.merge_queue.base_branch) and environment variables (BUILDKITE_MERGE_QUEUE_BASE_COMMIT, BUILDKITE_MERGE_QUEUE_BASE_BRANCH) to modify the behavior of your pipeline.
• Avoid redundant work using if_changed during step uploads: For appropriate merge queue configurations, the agent if_changed attribute can use BUILDKITE_MERGE_QUEUE_BASE_COMMIT to determine which steps to run based on the contents of the pull request – particularly useful for monorepos.

For full details about these features and the interaction between GitHub merge queues and Buildkite see our tutorial or watch the video below: