CircleCI Automation via Rube MCP

Prerequisites

• Rube MCP must be connected (RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS available)
• Active CircleCI connection via RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit circleci
• Always call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS first to get current tool schemas

Setup

1. Verify Rube MCP is available by confirming RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS responds
2. Call RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit circleci
3. If connection is not ACTIVE, follow the returned auth link to complete CircleCI authentication
4. Confirm connection status shows ACTIVE before running any workflows

Core Workflows

1. Trigger a Pipeline

1. CIRCLECI_TRIGGER_PIPELINE - Trigger a new pipeline on a project [Required]
2. CIRCLECI_LIST_WORKFLOWS_BY_PIPELINE_ID - Monitor resulting workflows [Optional]

• project_slug: Project identifier in format gh/org/repo or bb/org/repo
• branch: Git branch to run the pipeline on
• tag: Git tag to run the pipeline on (mutually exclusive with branch)
• parameters: Pipeline parameter key-value pairs

• project_slug format is {vcs}/{org}/{repo} (e.g., gh/myorg/myrepo)
• branch and tag are mutually exclusive; providing both causes an error
• Pipeline parameters must match those defined in .circleci/config.yml
• Triggering returns a pipeline ID; workflows start asynchronously

2. Monitor Pipelines and Workflows

1. CIRCLECI_LIST_PIPELINES_FOR_PROJECT - List recent pipelines for a project [Required]
2. CIRCLECI_LIST_WORKFLOWS_BY_PIPELINE_ID - List workflows within a pipeline [Required]
3. CIRCLECI_GET_PIPELINE_CONFIG - View the pipeline configuration used [Optional]

• project_slug: Project identifier in {vcs}/{org}/{repo} format
• pipeline_id: UUID of a specific pipeline
• branch: Filter pipelines by branch name
• page_token: Pagination cursor for next page of results

• Pipeline IDs are UUIDs, not numeric IDs
• Workflows inherit the pipeline ID; a single pipeline can have multiple workflows
• Workflow states include: success, running, not_run, failed, error, failing, on_hold, canceled, unauthorized
• page_token is returned in responses for pagination; continue until absent

3. Inspect Job Details

1. CIRCLECI_LIST_WORKFLOWS_BY_PIPELINE_ID - Find workflow containing the job [Prerequisite]
2. CIRCLECI_GET_JOB_DETAILS - Get detailed job information [Required]

• project_slug: Project identifier
• job_number: Numeric job number (not UUID)

• Job numbers are integers, not UUIDs (unlike pipeline and workflow IDs)
• Job details include executor type, parallelism, start/stop times, and status
• Job statuses: success, running, not_run, failed, retried, timedout, infrastructure_fail, canceled

4. Retrieve Build Artifacts

1. CIRCLECI_GET_JOB_DETAILS - Confirm job completed successfully [Prerequisite]
2. CIRCLECI_GET_JOB_ARTIFACTS - List all artifacts from the job [Required]

• project_slug: Project identifier
• job_number: Numeric job number

• Artifacts are only available after job completion
• Each artifact has a path and url for download
• Artifact URLs may require authentication headers to download
• Large artifacts may have download size limits

5. Review Test Results

1. CIRCLECI_GET_JOB_DETAILS - Verify job ran tests [Prerequisite]
2. CIRCLECI_GET_TEST_METADATA - Retrieve test results and metadata [Required]

• project_slug: Project identifier
• job_number: Numeric job number

• Test metadata requires the job to have uploaded test results (JUnit XML format)
• If no test results were uploaded, the response will be empty
• Test metadata includes classname, name, result, message, and run_time fields
• Failed tests include failure messages in the message field

Common Patterns

Project Slug Format

Format: {vcs_type}/{org_name}/{repo_name}
- GitHub:    gh/myorg/myrepo
- Bitbucket: bb/myorg/myrepo

Pipeline -> Workflow -> Job Hierarchy

1. Call CIRCLECI_LIST_PIPELINES_FOR_PROJECT to get pipeline IDs
2. Call CIRCLECI_LIST_WORKFLOWS_BY_PIPELINE_ID with pipeline_id
3. Extract job numbers from workflow details
4. Call CIRCLECI_GET_JOB_DETAILS with job_number

Pagination

• Check response for next_page_token field
• Pass token as page_token in next request
• Continue until next_page_token is absent or null

Known Pitfalls

• Pipeline IDs: UUIDs (e.g., 5034460f-c7c4-4c43-9457-de07e2029e7b)
• Workflow IDs: UUIDs
• Job numbers: Integers (e.g., 123)
• Do NOT mix up UUIDs and integers between different endpoints

• Must include VCS prefix: gh/ for GitHub, bb/ for Bitbucket
• Organization and repo names are case-sensitive
• Incorrect slug format causes 404 errors

• CircleCI API has per-endpoint rate limits
• Implement exponential backoff on 429 responses
• Avoid rapid polling; use reasonable intervals (5-10 seconds)

Quick Reference