Introducing Workflow Run Evidence to the CloudBees Platform

We are excited to announce that Workflow Run Evidence is now available for the CloudBees platform. This feature represents the continued evolution of our CD and Release capabilities and empowers platform administrators and development teams with comprehensive insights into their workflow runs. Our initial release focuses on enabling workflow and action authors to enrich workflow runs with user-specified run evidence.

Evidence is an important output of any software delivery process. It proves that work has been performed and provides traceability for audit and debugging purposes. It captures all relevant information, from how the workflow was triggered (e.g., manually) to the code commit associated with the run to the environments where the deployment occurred. These details are available in the workflow result or by examining job step logs. 

However, locating all this information can be challenging, as it involves scanning through workflow details and job logs. 

Workflow run evidence is a robust addition to our suite of tools that can present detailed information about each workflow run. This information can include details about code commits, user actions, deployment environments, and published artifacts. Workflow evidence compiles all essential data into one cohesive view. There are 4 overarching benefits of workflow evidence.

Ease of use

Workflows can be used to create and publish binary artifacts, provision test environments, deploy applications, run tests, and perform many other automation tasks. With workflow run evidence, it is now possible to surface information from these operations in a user-friendly way so that users can easily navigate to a deployed application or review a test report.

Enhanced traceability

Easily track every aspect of a workflow run, including:

• Commit Details: Understand which code changes were part of the run.

• User Actions: See who triggered the workflows and what actions were taken.

• Deployment Paths: Track where and how your code was deployed.

• Artifact Information: Access details about published artifacts, including versions and repositories.

Simplified audits and debugging

With workflow evidence automatically captured, you no longer need to scan through workflow details and job logs. Our comprehensive view addresses this by providing easy access to all relevant information for a given workflow run, including:

• Conduct thorough audits.

• Identify and resolve issues quickly.

• Ensure compliance with internal and external standards.

Increased security and confidence

Workflow evidence presents a complete picture of a workflow run and instills confidence in your processes. You can be assured that every step is documented and verifiable, ultimately strengthening the security and reliability of your software delivery pipeline.

When creating a workflow, add the push-evidence item action as a job step.  This can be done in 2 ways:

Visual Composer

Using the visual composer, you can add a step that references the actions catalog.

Adding a Step → Select from Catalog → publish-evidence-item

In your YAML file, add the following.

- name: Publish workflow evidence item
  uses: cloudbees-io/publish-evidence-item@v1
  with:
    content: |
      ## Test markup and property rendering
      - Run ID: ${{ cloudbees.run_id }}
      - Color test: <span style="color:green">This text should be green</span>
    format: MARKDOWN

The content field supports both markdown and CloudBees Platform property references such ${{ cloudbees.run_id }}

Once included, workflow runs will now capture the corresponding evidence. To access workflow evidence, navigate to Runs and select a previous run to see the Run Details. Then select the Evidence tab. 

The initial iteration of workflow evidence is now available in the CloudBees platform. It focuses on enabling workflow and action authors to specify what data to push as evidence for workflow runs. Stay tuned for future enhancements, including system evidence to capture deployments, approvals, and artifacts generated and consumed.

Get started with the CloudBees platform for free at cloudbees.io. 

For more information on workflow runs, visit docs.