cici-tools 0.21.0

Continuous Integration Catalog Interface

saferatday0 cici

cici (Continuous Integration Catalog Interface) is a pipeline component packaging tool. Author one CI configuration enriched with metadata, and cici:

• Bundles into individual, self-contained job files for distribution

• Pins pipeline dependencies to their latest releases

• Documents pipelines automatically

cici helps teams maintain reusable CI templates that are versioned, documented, and distributed as artifacts.

cici is a foundational component of saferatday0 and powers the saferatday0 library.

How It Works

cici introduces a project-level configuration that manages actual CI pipeline files. This config declares:

• Targets — named pipeline jobs with metadata (descriptions, groups, tags, container images)

• Variables — input variables with descriptions, defaults, and examples

• Groups — logical groupings of targets

• Metadata — project name, repo URL, descriptions

The tool then uses this higher-level config alongside provider-specific CI/CD files (currently only .gitlab-ci.yml) to bundle, document, and manage pipeline components.

Installation

pip install cici-tools

Usage

cici bundle

Splits a multi-job CI file into standalone, per-job YAML files — each job gets its own distributable .yml with all dependencies resolved (extends expanded, variables merged, containers injected).

cici bundle

Use -o/--output to select an output format (defaults to gitlab:include). Pass -o multiple times to generate several formats in one invocation:

cici bundle -o gitlab:include

The output format can also be controlled via the CICI_OUTPUTS environment variable (comma-separated for multiple formats):

CICI_OUTPUTS=gitlab:include cici bundle

$ cici bundle
⚡ python-autoflake.yml
⚡ python-black.yml
⚡ python-build-sdist.yml
⚡ python-build-wheel.yml
⚡ python-import-linter.yml
⚡ python-isort.yml
⚡ python-mypy.yml
⚡ python-pyroma.yml
⚡ python-pytest.yml
⚡ python-setuptools-bdist-wheel.yml
⚡ python-setuptools-sdist.yml
⚡ python-twine-upload.yml
⚡ python-vulture.yml

cici update

Pins GitLab CI include: references to the latest release tag of the included project. This is fetched from the GitLab API, and results are cached for 12 hours:

cici update

$ cici update
updated saferatday0/library/python to 0.5.1
updated saferatday0/library/gitlab from 0.1.0 to 0.2.2

You can ignore the cache and always pull the latest with -f:

cici update -f

cici readme

Auto-generates a README.md from your .cici/config.yaml using Jinja2 templates:

cici readme

To customize the output, place a README.md.j2 in your project's .cici/ directory:

# {{ name }} pipeline

{%- include "brief.md.j2" %}
{%- include "description.md.j2" %}

{%- include "groups.md.j2" %}

{%- include "targets.md.j2" %}

{%- include "variables.md.j2" %}

cici schema

Emits a JSON Schema for the .cici/config.yaml format, which can be used for editor validation and autocompletion:

cici schema
cici schema --format yaml -o schema.yaml

Configuration

Project Config (.cici/config.yaml)

Defines pipeline component metadata, targets, and variables:

name: my-pipeline
brief: A reusable CI/CD pipeline component.

targets:
  - name: lint
    brief: Run linters.
    container:
      image: python:3.12

  - name: test
    brief: Run tests.
    container:
      image: python:3.12

variables:
  PYTHON_VERSION:
    brief: Python version to use.
    default: "3.12"

Targets can also live in separate files under .cici/targets/*.yaml.

User Config (~/.config/cici-tools/config.ini)

Controls GitLab connection and caching:

# ~/.config/cici-tools/config.ini
CICI_GITLAB_URL=https://gitlab.com
CICI_GITLAB_PRIVATE_TOKEN=glpat-...
CICI_CACHE_TIMEOUT=43200

License

Copyright 2026 UL Research Institutes.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.