monitor-ci

Monitor Nx Cloud CI pipeline and handle self-healing fixes. USE WHEN user says "monitor ci", "watch ci", "ci monitor", "watch ci for this branch", "track ci",…

INSTALLATION
npx skills add https://github.com/nrwl/nx-ai-agents-config --skill monitor-ci
Run in your project or agent environment. Adjust flags if your CLI version differs.

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)

BrowserAct

Let your agent run on any real-world website

Bypass CAPTCHA & anti-bot for free. Start local, scale to cloud.

Explore BrowserAct Skills →

Stop writing automation&scrapers

Install the CLI. Run your first Skill in 30 seconds. Scale when you're ready.

Start free
free · no credit card