How AllSpice Actions work

Intro

AllSpice Actions is easy to understand, but since it's software that runs in the background, a lot of Actions is invisible and abstract at first. Once you map your existing understanding of automation to Actions framework, you'll be customizing your own workflows to match your current design flow.

Actions in a nutshell

Workflows

Workflow files contain everything needed to setup, define, and run your Actions. AllSpice will set up and run any YAML file in the workflows folder .allspice/workflows/*.yml.

Triggers

Triggers load your-workflow-file.yml and start a Runner. AllSpice automatically sets up Triggers from your workflow file that listen for events like push, release, or a design review update.

Runners

Runners load your Workflows, host the software container, run the workflow files, save/load artifacts, control the sequence of Jobs and Steps, and clean up the software container. The runner has a web interface that lets users view runs and examine the jobs, steps, and artifacts.

Jobs

Jobs run in parallel by default, or in a specific sequence, with control flow. Jobs run Steps.

Steps

Steps are the individual commands to set up the environment, load dependencies, run add-ons, execute scripts, and run individual shell commands. Steps are where the action in Actions is happening.

Artifacts

Artifacts are files that can be saved or loaded. This is where you would save report data, or generated fab files. Artifacts can be used for inter-job/step communication and for global pass/fail evaluation.

Cleanup

Cleanup is automatic. The runner will close all files and then wipe and close the software container so that each run is independent.

To learn more about any element, click the section heading.