monitor-ci

SKILL.md

Monitor CI Command

You are the orchestrator for monitoring Nx Cloud CI pipeline executions and handling self-healing fixes. You spawn subagents to interact with Nx Cloud, run deterministic decision scripts, and take action based on the results.

Context

Current Branch: !git branch --show-current

Current Commit: !git rev-parse --short HEAD

Remote Status: !git status -sb | head -1

User Instructions

$ARGUMENTS

Important: If user provides specific instructions, respect them over default behaviors described below.

Configuration Defaults

Setting
Default
Description

--max-cycles
10
Maximum agent-initiated CI Attempt cycles before timeout

--timeout
120
Maximum duration in minutes

--verbosity
medium
Output level: minimal, medium, verbose

--branch
(auto-detect)
Branch to monitor

--fresh
false
Ignore previous context, start fresh

--auto-fix-workflow
false
Attempt common fixes for pre-CI-Attempt failures (e.g., lockfile updates)

--new-cipe-timeout
10
Minutes to wait for new CI Attempt after action

--local-verify-attempts
3
Max local verification + enhance cycles before pushing to CI

Parse any overrides from $ARGUMENTS and merge with defaults.

Nx Cloud Connection Check

Before starting the monitoring loop, verify the workspace is connected to Nx Cloud. Without this connection, no CI data is available and the entire skill is inoperable.

Step 0: Verify Nx Cloud Connection

Check nx.json at workspace root for nxCloudId or nxCloudAccessToken

If nx.json missing OR neither property exists → exit with:

Nx Cloud not connected. Unlock 70% faster CI and auto-fix broken PRs with https://nx.dev/nx-cloud

If connected → continue to main loop

Architecture Overview

This skill (orchestrator): spawns subagents, runs scripts, prints status, does local coding work

ci-monitor-subagent (haiku): calls one MCP tool (ci_information or update_self_healing_fix), returns structured result, exits

ci-poll-decide.mjs (deterministic script): takes ci_information result + state, returns action + status message

ci-state-update.mjs (deterministic script): manages budget gates, post-action state transitions, and cycle classification

Status Reporting

The decision script handles message formatting based on verbosity. When printing messages to the user:

Prepend [monitor-ci] to every message from the script's message field

For your own action messages (e.g. "Applying fix via MCP..."), also prepend [monitor-ci]

Anti-Patterns

These behaviors cause real problems — racing with self-healing, losing CI progress, or wasting context:

Anti-Pattern
Why It's Bad

Using CI provider CLIs with --watch flags (e.g., gh pr checks --watch, glab ci status -w)
Bypasses Nx Cloud self-healing entirely

Writing custom CI polling scripts
Unreliable, pollutes context, no self-healing

Cancelling CI workflows/pipelines
Destructive, loses CI progress

Running CI checks on main agent
Wastes main agent context tokens

Independently analyzing/fixing CI failures while polling
Races with self-healing, causes duplicate fixes and confused state

If this skill fails to activate, the fallback is:

Use CI provider CLI for a one-time, read-only status check (single call, no watch/polling flags)

Immediately delegate to this skill with gathered context

Do not continue polling on main agent — it wastes context tokens and bypasses self-healing

Session Context Behavior

If the user previously ran /monitor-ci in this session, you may have prior state (poll counts, last CI Attempt URL, etc.). Resume from that state unless --fresh is set, in which case discard it and start from Step 1.

MCP Tool Reference

The ci_information and update_self_healing_fix tools are called via the ci-monitor-subagent, not directly from the orchestrator. Calling MCP tools directly wastes main agent context with large response payloads. The field sets below are for composing subagent prompts (see Step 2a).

Three field sets control polling efficiency — use the lightest set that gives you what you need:

WAIT_FIELDS: 'cipeUrl,commitSha,cipeStatus'
LIGHT_FIELDS: 'cipeStatus,cipeUrl,branch,commitSha,selfHealingStatus,verificationStatus,userAction,failedTaskIds,verifiedTaskIds,selfHealingEnabled,failureClassification,couldAutoApplyTasks,autoApplySkipped,autoApplySkipReason,shortLink,confidence,confidenceReasoning,hints,selfHealingSkippedReason,selfHealingSkipMessage'
HEAVY_FIELDS: 'taskOutputSummary,suggestedFix,suggestedFixReasoning,suggestedFixDescription'

The ci_information tool accepts branch (optional, defaults to current git branch), select (comma-separated field names), and pageToken (0-based pagination for long strings).

The update_self_healing_fix tool accepts a shortLink and an action: APPLY, REJECT, or RERUN_ENVIRONMENT_STATE.

Default Behaviors by Status

The decision script returns one of the following statuses. This table defines the default behavior for each. User instructions can override any of these.

Simple exits — just report and exit:

Status
Default Behavior

ci_success
Exit with success

cipe_canceled
Exit, CI was canceled

cipe_timed_out
Exit, CI timed out

polling_timeout
Exit, polling timeout reached

circuit_breaker
Exit, no progress after 13 consecutive polls

environment_rerun_cap
Exit, environment reruns exhausted

fix_auto_applying
Self-healing is handling it — just record last_cipe_url, enter wait mode. No MCP call or local git ops needed.

error
Wait 60s and loop

Statuses requiring action — when handling these in Step 3, read references/fix-flows.md for the detailed flow:

Status
Summary

fix_auto_apply_skipped
Fix verified but auto-apply skipped (e.g., loop prevention). Inform user, offer manual apply.

fix_apply_ready
Fix verified (all tasks or e2e-only). Apply via MCP.

fix_needs_local_verify
Fix has unverified non-e2e tasks. Run locally, then apply or enhance.

fix_needs_review
Fix verification failed/not attempted. Analyze and decide.

fix_failed
Self-healing failed. Fetch heavy data, attempt local fix (gate check first).

no_fix
No fix available. Fetch heavy data, attempt local fix (gate check first) or exit.

environment_issue
Request environment rerun via MCP (gate check first).

self_healing_throttled
Reject old fixes, attempt local fix.

no_new_cipe
CI Attempt never spawned. Auto-fix workflow or exit with guidance.

cipe_no_tasks
CI failed with no tasks. Retry once with empty commit.

Key rules (always apply):

Git safety: Stage specific files by name — git add -A or git add . risks committing the user's unrelated work-in-progress or secrets

Environment failures (OOM, command not found, permission denied): bail immediately. These aren't code bugs, so spending local-fix budget on them is wasteful

Gate check: Run ci-state-update.mjs gate before local fix attempts — if budget exhausted, print message and exit

Main Loop

Step 1: Initialize Tracking

cycle_count = 0            # Only incremented for agent-initiated cycles (counted against --max-cycles)
start_time = now()
no_progress_count = 0
local_verify_count = 0
env_rerun_count = 0
last_cipe_url = null
expected_commit_sha = null
agent_triggered = false    # Set true after monitor takes an action that triggers new CI Attempt
poll_count = 0
wait_mode = false
prev_status = null
prev_cipe_status = null
prev_sh_status = null
prev_verification_status = null
prev_failure_classification = null

Step 2: Polling Loop

Repeat until done:

2a. Spawn subagent (FETCH_STATUS)

Determine select fields based on mode:

Wait mode: use WAIT_FIELDS (cipeUrl,commitSha,cipeStatus)

Normal mode (first poll or after newCipeDetected): use LIGHT_FIELDS

Task(
  agent: "ci-monitor-subagent",
  model: haiku,
  prompt: "FETCH_STATUS for branch '<branch>'.
           select: '<fields>'"
)

The subagent calls ci_information and returns a JSON object with the requested fields. This is a foreground call — wait for the result.

2b. Run decision script

node <skill_dir>/scripts/ci-poll-decide.mjs '<subagent_result_json>' <poll_count> <verbosity> \
  [--wait-mode] \
  [--prev-cipe-url <last_cipe_url>] \
  [--expected-sha <expected_commit_sha>] \
  [--prev-status <prev_status>] \
  [--timeout <timeout_seconds>] \
  [--new-cipe-timeout <new_cipe_timeout_seconds>] \
  [--env-rerun-count <env_rerun_count>] \
  [--no-progress-count <no_progress_count>] \
  [--prev-cipe-status <prev_cipe_status>] \
  [--prev-sh-status <prev_sh_status>] \
  [--prev-verification-status <prev_verification_status>] \
  [--prev-failure-classification <prev_failure_classification>]

The script outputs a single JSON line: { action, code, message, delay?, noProgressCount, envRerunCount, fields?, newCipeDetected?, verifiableTaskIds? }

2c. Process script output

Parse the JSON output and update tracking state:

no_progress_count = output.noProgressCount

env_rerun_count = output.envRerunCount

prev_cipe_status = subagent_result.cipeStatus

prev_sh_status = subagent_result.selfHealingStatus

prev_verification_status = subagent_result.verificationStatus

prev_failure_classification = subagent_result.failureClassification

prev_status = output.action + ":" + (output.code || subagent_result.cipeStatus)

poll_count++

Based on action:

action == "poll": Print output.message, sleep output.delay seconds, go to 2a

If output.newCipeDetected: clear wait mode, reset wait_mode = false

action == "wait": Print output.message, sleep output.delay seconds, go to 2a

action == "done": Proceed to Step 3 with output.code

Step 3: Handle Actionable Status

When decision script returns action == "done":

Run cycle-check (Step 4) before handling the code

Check the returned code

Look up default behavior in the table above

Check if user instructions override the default

Execute the appropriate action

If action expects new CI Attempt, update tracking (see Step 3a)

If action results in looping, go to Step 2

Spawning subagents for actions

Several statuses require fetching heavy data or calling MCP:

fix_apply_ready: Spawn UPDATE_FIX subagent with APPLY

fix_needs_local_verify: Spawn FETCH_HEAVY subagent for fix details before local verification

fix_needs_review: Spawn FETCH_HEAVY subagent → get suggestedFixDescription, suggestedFixSummary, taskFailureSummaries

fix_failed / no_fix: Spawn FETCH_HEAVY subagent → get taskFailureSummaries for local fix context

environment_issue: Spawn UPDATE_FIX subagent with RERUN_ENVIRONMENT_STATE

self_healing_throttled: Spawn FETCH_HEAVY subagent → get selfHealingSkipMessage; then FETCH_THROTTLE_INFO + UPDATE_FIX for each old fix

Step 3a: Track State for New-CI-Attempt Detection

After actions that should trigger a new CI Attempt, run:

node <skill_dir>/scripts/ci-state-update.mjs post-action \
  --action <type> \
  --cipe-url <current_cipe_url> \
  --commit-sha <git_rev_parse_HEAD>

Action types: fix-auto-applying, apply-mcp, apply-local-push, reject-fix-push, local-fix-push, env-rerun, auto-fix-push, empty-commit-push

The script returns { waitMode, pollCount, lastCipeUrl, expectedCommitSha, agentTriggered }. Update all tracking state from the output, then go to Step 2.

Step 4: Cycle Classification and Progress Tracking

When the decision script returns action == "done", run cycle-check before handling the code:

node <skill_dir>/scripts/ci-state-update.mjs cycle-check \
  --code <code> \
  [--agent-triggered] \
  --cycle-count <cycle_count> --max-cycles <max_cycles> \
  --env-rerun-count <env_rerun_count>

The script returns { cycleCount, agentTriggered, envRerunCount, approachingLimit, message }. Update tracking state from the output.

If approachingLimit → ask user whether to continue (with 5 or 10 more cycles) or stop monitoring

If previous cycle was NOT agent-triggered (human pushed), log that human-initiated push was detected

Progress Tracking

no_progress_count, circuit breaker (5 polls), and backoff reset are handled by ci-poll-decide.mjs (progress = any change in cipeStatus, selfHealingStatus, verificationStatus, or failureClassification)

env_rerun_count reset on non-environment status is handled by ci-state-update.mjs cycle-check

On new CI Attempt detected (poll script returns newCipeDetected) → reset local_verify_count = 0, env_rerun_count = 0

Error Handling

Error
Action

Git rebase conflict
Report to user, exit

nx-cloud apply-locally fails
Reject fix via MCP (action: "REJECT"), then attempt manual patch (Reject + Fix From Scratch Flow) or exit

MCP tool error
Retry once, if fails report to user

Subagent spawn failure
Retry once, if fails exit with error

Decision script error
Treat as error status, increment no_progress_count

No new CI Attempt detected
If --auto-fix-workflow, try lockfile update; otherwise report to user with guidance

Lockfile auto-fix fails
Report to user, exit with guidance to check CI logs

User Instruction Examples

Users can override default behaviors:

Instruction
Effect

"never auto-apply"
Always prompt before applying any fix

"always ask before git push"
Prompt before each push

"reject any fix for e2e tasks"
Auto-reject if failedTaskIds contains e2e

"apply all fixes regardless of verification"
Skip verification check, apply everything

"if confidence < 70, reject"
Check confidence field before applying

"run 'nx affected -t typecheck' before applying"
Add local verification step

"auto-fix workflow failures"
Attempt lockfile updates on pre-CI-Attempt failures

"wait 45 min for new CI Attempt"
Override new-CI-Attempt timeout (default: 10 min)