ceven

Buildkite

Triggers CI pipelines based on external events, monitors build health across your organization, and manages agent scaling based on queue depth.

Try Buildkite in Ceven

Ask Ceven anything
Standard

Why use Ceven?

  1. AI native Buildkite integration

    • Describe the outcome and Ceven picks the right Buildkite calls, fills the parameters, and checks the result.
    • Structured, agent friendly tool schemas so each call runs reliably instead of by guesswork.
    • Rich coverage for reading, writing, and querying your Buildkite data, across all 5 of its actions.

  2. Managed auth

    • Built in OAuth with automatic token refresh and rotation.
    • One place to manage, scope, and revoke Buildkite access.
    • Per user and per environment credentials instead of shared keys.

  3. Agent optimized design

    • Actions are tuned from real success and error rates so reliability climbs over time.
    • Full execution logs so you always know what ran in Buildkite, when, and on whose behalf.
    • The agent pauses and asks when Buildkite is unclear instead of plowing ahead.

  4. Enterprise grade security

    • Fine grained access so you control which agents and people can reach Buildkite.
    • Least privilege by default, read scopes first and only the writes a workflow needs.
    • A full audit trail of every Buildkite action to support review and sign off.

Supported tools

Every action Ceven's agents can run on Buildkite, and when to use it.

Get access token
Use this to retrieve the current API access token details to confirm validity and scopes.
Get API meta
Pull metadata about the Buildkite API to fetch webhook IP addresses for security configurations.
List pipeline agents
Pull a list of connected agents for an organization to check current capacity and status.
Trigger build
Start a new build for a specific pipeline. Use this for automated deployments or manual overrides.
Cancel build
Stop a running build immediately. Common path: stopping a build after a critical bug is found in a newer commit.
Get build details
Pull the full state of a specific build including status, commit hash, and duration.
List pipeline builds
Query all builds for a pipeline to identify trends in failure rates or build times.
Get build log
Pull the raw output of a specific build step to analyze failure logs for errors.
Update build status
Manually change the status of a build. Use this when external tests finish outside the Buildkite agent.
List organizations
Pull all organizations the token has access to for multi tenant environment management.
Get pipeline
Pull configuration and metadata for a specific pipeline by its slug.
List pipeline steps
Retrieve the sequence of steps defined in a pipeline to map dependencies.
Create build tag
Add a label to a build for easier filtering in reports or external tracking.
Search builds
Query builds based on commit, branch, or status across the organization.
Restart build
Trigger a retry for a failed build without pushing a new commit.
Manage agent status
Update the state of a specific agent to take it offline for maintenance.
Get Current Access Token
Tool to retrieve the authenticated api access token details. use when you need to confirm the validity and scopes of the current api token.
Get Meta
Tool to retrieve metadata about the buildkite api. use when you need to fetch webhook ip addresses for firewall or security configurations.

18 actions · scroll to see them all

Frequently asked questions

Ceven implements an exponential backoff strategy specifically tuned for the Buildkite API. When the agent receives a 429 Too Many Requests response, it pauses execution and retries based on the retry after header provided by Buildkite. Because we use a centralized queue for agent calls, we can throttle requests at the organization level to prevent your API token from being temporarily banned. This is critical for large organizations with thousands of builds per hour where polling for status could easily hit limits. We recommend using webhooks for high frequency events to minimize API calls and keep your rate limit quota available for write operations.
Yes. Since Buildkite uses a hybrid model where the control plane is hosted but agents run on your infrastructure, Ceven interacts with the Buildkite API to monitor those agents. While Ceven cannot log into your physical server via SSH unless you provide a separate integration, it can tell your cloud provider to spin up new instances based on the agent status reported by Buildkite. For example, if the agent sees the queue is backing up, it can trigger an AWS Auto Scaling group to add more Buildkite agents. Once the API reports that the agents are online and idling, Ceven can trigger the scale down process.
No. Ceven only interacts with the Buildkite API, which manages the orchestration and metadata of your builds. It sees build statuses, logs, and commit hashes, but it never clones your repository or accesses your private source code. The actual execution of the code happens on your own agents, which are outside the reach of the Ceven platform. We only see what the Buildkite API exposes, such as the text output of a build log or the status of a pipeline step. This ensures that your intellectual property remains on your own secure infrastructure at all times.
Buildkite generally prevents circular dependencies in its pipeline configuration, but if a complex workflow created via Ceven triggers a loop, our agent includes a safety circuit breaker. If the same pipeline is triggered more than five times within a ten minute window for the same commit hash, Ceven will pause the workflow and alert the administrator. This prevents an infinite loop of builds that could exhaust your agent resources or inflate your Buildkite bill. You can adjust these thresholds in the workflow settings to match your specific deployment frequency and pipeline complexity.
Yes, provided the API token you provide to Ceven has the necessary permissions. Buildkite uses a granular permission model where tokens can be scoped to specific organizations or pipelines. If you grant the token admin or write access to a private pipeline, Ceven can trigger builds, cancel them, and read logs. We recommend using a dedicated service account token with the minimum permissions required for your workflows. If the token lacks permission for a specific private pipeline, the API will return a 404 or 403 error, and the Ceven agent will log a permission denied message in the workflow history.
For builds that run for hours, Ceven does not hold an open connection. Instead, it uses a polling mechanism or listens for Buildkite webhooks to track progress. If a build exceeds the timeout limit defined in your Buildkite YAML configuration, the API reports the build as failed. Ceven detects this state change and can trigger a cleanup workflow, such as notifying the team on Slack or archiving a failed build artifact. Because we rely on the state reported by the Buildkite API, we stay in sync with your actual pipeline settings regardless of how long a build takes to finish.
There is no hard limit on the number of pipelines Ceven can monitor, but performance depends on your Buildkite plan. Buildkite limits the number of concurrent builds and agents based on your tier. If you attempt to trigger hundreds of pipelines simultaneously via Ceven, you may hit the concurrency limits of your Buildkite account, causing builds to stay in a pending state. Ceven will report these as pending and can be configured to alert you when the queue depth exceeds a certain number. This allows you to decide whether to upgrade your Buildkite plan or optimize your pipeline efficiency.
Ceven cannot directly edit a file in your git repository to change your pipeline.yml. However, if you use Buildkite Dynamic Pipelines, Ceven can send a POST request to your pipeline endpoint with a new JSON configuration. This allows the agent to change the build steps, environment variables, or agent requirements on the fly for a specific build. This is the preferred way to implement dynamic logic, such as running a different set of tests based on which files were changed in a pull request, without needing to commit a change to the configuration file every time.

Alternatives to Buildkite

Other tools that solve a similar problem. Ceven supports these too, so you can switch or run more than one at once.

CircleCI logoCircleCIGitHub Actions logoGitHub ActionsGitLab CI logoGitLab CIJenkins logoJenkins

Try Ceven on your stack

Plug Ceven on top of the tools you already run. Connect Buildkite and the rest of your stack, describe the outcome, and its agents handle the work end to end, days of it in minutes.

Get started for free