Add soft failure option for trigger steps

Command steps has a soft_fail attribute, which allows the build to not fail if the command is not successful. I’d like a similar option for trigger steps: An option that allows the build to not be considered a failure even if a certain trigger step fails.

We are already using allow_dependency_failures to allow other steps in the pipeline to run even when the trigger fails; however, a failure in the trigger step still causes the overall build to be considered a failure, which, in our case, makes it more difficult to visualize whether the failures for that pipeline were actual failures, versus only failures in the steps that we consider soft failures.

Hi @martani-benchling ,

Thanks for raising this.

I can see the value in adding this as an option to the trigger step! I’ve sent this over to the product team as a feature request. :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,

Jeremy

Seconding this feature request, we like to trigger some builds which we want to allow soft fail, but do not want to fully ignore like by running async, any update on this?

Unfortunately no update yet. The team is aware of the request but hasn’t got to deciding and prioritising on it yet

I am also looking for this feature on the trigger step. We want to wait on the triggered step to complete, but we don’t want the build to be considered ‘failed’ if the triggered build fails.

Hey! Unfortunately, we haven’t had the capacity to look at this properly yet, but it’s in our backlog. We’ll update you when there is more news.
Thanks!

@paula Any update on this, it’s been a year , we are waiting for the feature to be there.

Hey @AmyGuo! Unfortunately no update yet, but I’ll raise it with the Product team and they will get back to you with more details :pray:

Hi all! Thanks for your patience – my team will be picking this one up next week, so should have it updated for you by the week after

Hello! Any updates on this?

Hey! Yes! This was implemented and we also updated our docs Trigger step | Buildkite Documentation

Best!

Thanks for the reply. This is fantastic!

I did see this documented on your spec. However, when I initially added it, vscode editor shows this error:

image.png

“Property soft_fail is not allowed yaml-schema: Buildkite”

So I spent the entire day looking for a solution or alternative to soft_fail my trigger step.

Reading your email, I pushed my pipeline.yml with the property error in spite of the error. Looks like the Buildkite is running as expected!

It appears my build can continue - even if “RP Smoke Tests” failed. I assume the red triangle is a “soft_fail” icon of some sort. I was expecting a soft fail message underneath.

Do you know why vscode shows schema error?

Good that it’s working!

Do you know why vscode shows schema error?

I’m not sure how vscode validates it, but probably because we hadn’t updated the pipeline schema yet. That one could take some time, but you can raise an issue on that repo :slight_smile:

Best!

You rock, Paula. Thank you again!

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PR raised! :grinning:

https://github.com/buildkite/pipeline-schema/pull/55

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Thanks @alexcsm ! We’ve reviewed and merged that PR for you. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: