BuildBuddy - Remote CI/CD Debugging

VerifiedSafe

Debug failed CI/CD jobs by accessing BuildBuddy's remote build execution and caching data. Use MCP tools to fetch invocation metadata, full logs, targets, and actions, enabling rapid root cause analysis of failures. Ideal for investigating GitHub Actions pipeline failures or remote build issues.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
1106/2/2026
Claude Code
#buildbuddy#ci-cd-debugging#remote-build#bazel

Recommended for

Our review

Uses BuildBuddy to debug CI/CD failures by analyzing build invocations, logs, and targets via MCP tools.

Strengths

  • Direct MCP integration without needing API keys
  • Structured access to build metadata, logs, and artifacts
  • Ideal for CI pipelines using BuildBuddy with Bazel

Limitations

  • Requires manual extraction of invocation ID from links
  • Only works for builds instrumented by BuildBuddy
  • Large logs may require pagination
When to use it

When you need to diagnose a CI build failure on a platform using BuildBuddy.

When not to use it

For local CI builds or those using a different remote build service.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

The skill only uses safe, read-only commands (gh CLI to extract metadata) and MCP tools for build analysis. It explicitly discourages direct curl calls, and performs no destructive actions or data exfiltration.

No concerns found

Examples

Debug a failed BuildBuddy invocation
Our CI build failed on invocation abc123 in BuildBuddy. Can you investigate why and show me the error logs?
Analyze test targets from a build
Get the target details for the last failed build in this PR and tell me which test failed and why.

name: buildbuddy description: Use when debugging failed CI/CD jobs, analyzing build logs, or investigating GitHub Actions failures. Access BuildBuddy remote build execution and caching service for detailed build insights.

BuildBuddy - Remote Build Execution & CI Debugging

MCP Tools (Primary Interface)

Use BuildBuddy MCP tools via Context Forge. MCP handles authentication automatically.

Load tools with: ToolSearch query +buildbuddy

| Tool | Purpose | | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | buildbuddy-mcp-get-invocation | Build metadata, status, duration | | buildbuddy-mcp-get-log | Full build logs (stdout/stderr) | | buildbuddy-mcp-get-target | Target information and results | | buildbuddy-mcp-get-action | Action details and execution info | | buildbuddy-mcp-get-file | Download files by URI | | buildbuddy-mcp-execute-workflow | Trigger a BuildBuddy workflow |

Debugging Failed CI

Workflow

GitHub PR fails
      │
      ▼
gh pr checks ──► extract invocation ID from BuildBuddy URL
      │
      ▼
ToolSearch +buildbuddy ──► load MCP tools
      │
      ▼
buildbuddy-mcp-get-invocation ──► check success/failure, duration
      │
      ▼
buildbuddy-mcp-get-log ──► find error messages
      │
      ▼
Parse errors ──► fix root cause

Step 1: Get the Invocation ID

# Extract invocation ID from PR check links
gh pr checks --json link | jq -r '.[] | select(.link | contains("buildbuddy")) | .link' | grep -o '[^/]*$' | head -1

The invocation ID is the last path segment of the BuildBuddy URL: https://jomcgi.buildbuddy.io/invocation/<invocation_id>

Step 2: Investigate with MCP Tools

Use the invocation ID with MCP tools — no API key or curl needed:

  1. Get overview: buildbuddy-mcp-get-invocation — check .invocation.success, command, duration
  2. Get logs: buildbuddy-mcp-get-log — search for error/fail/fatal messages
  3. Get targets: buildbuddy-mcp-get-target — find which targets failed
  4. Get actions: buildbuddy-mcp-get-action — dig into specific action failures
  5. Get files: buildbuddy-mcp-get-file — download test outputs or artifacts

Tips

  • Reproduce locally with bazel test //... --config=ci
  • BuildBuddy logs may be paginated — use page tokens for large logs
  • Check .invocation.success boolean to quickly determine pass/fail
  • A PreToolUse hook blocks direct curl to the BuildBuddy API — use MCP tools instead
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