CodePipeline pipeline structure reference

Source

Build

Test

Deploy

Approval

Invoke

A pipeline must contain at least two stages.

The first stage of a pipeline must contain at least one source action. It can contain source actions only.

Only the first stage of a pipeline can contain source actions.

At least one stage in each pipeline must contain an action that is not a source action.

All stage names in a pipeline must be unique.

Stage names cannot be edited in the CodePipeline console. If you edit a stage name by using the Amazon CLI, and the stage contains an action with one or more secret parameters (such as an OAuth token), the value of those secret parameters is not preserved. You must manually enter the value of the parameters (which are masked by four asterisks in the JSON returned by the Amazon CLI) and include them in the JSON structure.

The artifactStore field contains the artifact bucket type and location for a pipeline with all actions in the same Amazon Region. If you add actions in a Region different from your pipeline, the artifactStores mapping is used to list the artifact bucket for each Amazon Region where actions are executed. When you create or edit a pipeline, you must have an artifact bucket in the pipeline Region and then you must have one artifact bucket per Region where you plan to execute an action.

The following example shows the basic structure for a pipeline with cross-Region actions that uses the artifactStores parameter:

    "pipeline": {
        "name": "YourPipelineName",
        "roleArn": "CodePipeline_Service_Role",
        "artifactStores": {
            "us-east-1": {
                "type": "S3",
                "location": "S3 artifact bucket name, such as codepipeline-us-east-1-1234567890"
            },
            "us-west-2": {
                "type": "S3",
                "location": "S3 artifact bucket name, such as codepipeline-us-west-2-1234567890"
            }
        },
        "stages": [
            {

...

The pipeline metadata fields are distinct from the pipeline structure and cannot be edited. When you update a pipeline, the date in the updated metadata field changes automatically.

When you edit or update a pipeline, the pipeline name cannot be changed.

All action names within a stage must be unique.

The input artifact of an action must exactly match the output artifact declared in a preceding action. For example, if a preceding action includes the following declaration:

"outputArtifacts": [
    {
    "MyApp"
    }
],

and there are no other output artifacts, then the input artifact of a following action must be:

"inputArtifacts": [
    {
    "MyApp"
    }
],

This is true for all actions, whether they are in the same stage or in following stages, but the input artifact does not have to be the next action in strict sequence from the action that provided the output artifact. Actions in parallel can declare different output artifact bundles, which are, in turn, consumed by different following actions.

Output artifact names must be unique in a pipeline. For example, a pipeline can include one action that has an output artifact named "MyApp" and another action that has an output artifact named "MyBuiltApp". However, a pipeline cannot include two actions that both have an output artifact named "MyApp".

Cross-Region actions use the Region field to designate the Amazon Region where the actions are to be created. The Amazon resources created for this action must be created in the same Region provided in the region field. You cannot create cross-Region actions for the following action types:

Actions can be configured with variables. You use the namespace field to set the namespace and variable information for execution variables. For reference information about execution variables and action output variables, see Variables.

For all currently supported action types, the only valid owner string is AWS, ThirdParty, or Custom. For more information, see the CodePipeline API Reference.

The default runOrder value for an action is 1. The value must be a positive integer (natural number). You cannot use fractions, decimals, negative numbers, or zero. To specify a serial sequence of actions, use the smallest number for the first action and larger numbers for each of the rest of the actions in sequence. To specify parallel actions, use the same integer for each action you want to run in parallel. In the console, you can specify a serial sequence for an action by choosing Add action group at the level in the stage where you want it to run, or you can specify a parallel sequence by choosing Add action. Action group refers to a run order of one or more actions at the same level.

For example, if you want three actions to run in sequence in a stage, you would give the first action the runOrder value of 1, the second action the runOrder value of 2, and the third the runOrder value of 3. However, if you want the second and third actions to run in parallel, you would give the first action the runOrder value of 1 and both the second and third actions the runOrder value of 2.

When you use an Amazon S3 bucket as a deployment location, you also specify an object key. An object key can be a file name (object) or a combination of a prefix (folder path) and file name. You can use variables to specify the location name you want the pipeline to use. Amazon S3 deployment actions support the use of the following variables in Amazon S3 object keys.

These are the valid actionTypeId categories for CodePipeline:

Some provider types and configuration options are provided here.

Valid provider types for an action category depend on the category. For example, for a source action type, a valid provider type is S3, GitHub, CodeCommit, or Amazon ECR. This example shows the structure for a source action with an S3 provider:

"actionTypeId": {
  "category": "Source",
  "owner": "AWS",
  "version": "1",
  "provider": "S3"},

Every action must have a valid action configuration, which depends on the provider type for that action. The following table lists the required action configuration elements for each valid provider type:

Add the PollForSourceChanges parameter to the JSON file or Amazon CloudFormation template.

Create change detection resources (CloudWatch Events rule, as applicable).

Set the PollForSourceChanges parameter to false.

The PollForSourceChanges parameter is not used for Amazon ECR source actions.