How to Trigger All Pipelines in an Azure DevOps Project

Azure DevOps provides a robust platform for managing your software development lifecycle, and a critical part of this process is triggering pipelines. Pipelines are used to automate various tasks such as building, testing, and deploying your applications. In some scenarios, you might need to trigger all pipelines within a project simultaneously, perhaps for a scheduled release or to ensure consistent builds across different branches. In this article, we’ll explore the steps to trigger all pipelines in an Azure DevOps project.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the process, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. Azure DevOps Account: You need an active Azure DevOps account with appropriate permissions to access and manage pipelines in the project.

2. Pipeline Configuration: Pipelines should be set up and configured within your Azure DevOps project.

Triggering All Pipelines

To trigger all pipelines within an Azure DevOps project, you can use the Azure DevOps REST API in combination with scripting. Here’s a step-by-step guide to achieve this:

Step 1: Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)

To access Azure DevOps resources through the API, you’ll need a Personal Access Token (PAT). Follow these steps to create one:

1. Log in to your Azure DevOps account.

2. Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner and select “Security”.

3. Under “Personal Access Tokens”, click on “New Token”.

4. Configure the token’s settings, ensuring you grant appropriate permissions such as “Build (Read and Execute)” and “Release (Read and Execute)”.

5. After configuring, click “Create” to generate the PAT. Note: Make sure to copy and store the generated token securely as you won’t be able to see it again.

Step 2: Use REST API to Trigger Pipelines

With the PAT in hand, you can now use it to trigger pipelines via the Azure DevOps REST API. The API endpoint to trigger a pipeline is typically in the format:

POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs?api-version=6.0-preview.1

However, since you want to trigger all pipelines, you’ll need to gather the IDs of all pipelines in your project. This can be done using the following endpoint:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines?api-version=6.0-preview.1

You can use a scripting language (e.g., PowerShell, Bash) to fetch the pipeline IDs and trigger each pipeline sequentially using the POST endpoint mentioned earlier.

Here’s a simplified example using PowerShell:

#!/bin/bash

pat="YOUR_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN"
organization="YOUR_ORGANIZATION"
project="YOUR_PROJECT"

# Get pipeline IDs
pipelines=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Basic $(echo -n :$pat | base64)" "https://dev.azure.com/$organization/$project/_apis/pipelines?api-version=6.0-preview.1")

# Trigger each pipeline
pipeline_ids=$(echo "$pipelines" | jq -r '.value[].id')
for pipeline_id in $pipeline_ids; do
    curl -s -H "Authorization: Basic $(echo -n :$pat | base64)" -X POST "https://dev.azure.com/$organization/$project/_apis/pipelines/$pipeline_id/runs?api-version=6.0-preview.1"
done

Remember to replace YOUR_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN, YOUR_ORGANIZATION, and YOUR_PROJECT with your actual values.

Conclusion

Triggering all pipelines in an Azure DevOps project can be accomplished by leveraging the Azure DevOps REST API and scripting tools like PowerShell or Bash. This approach allows you to automate the process of initiating builds, tests, and deployments across multiple pipelines simultaneously. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can streamline your development and release processes, ensuring consistent and efficient pipeline executions.