Call AWS CodeBuild project from CodePipeline with different parameters

Issue

Let's imagine that we have one CodePipeline with 2 stages in the following fashion:

new codepipeline.Pipeline(this, name + "Pipeline", {
    pipelineName: this.projectName + "-" + name,
    crossAccountKeys: false,
    stages: [{
        stageName: 'Source',
        actions: [codeCommitSourceAction]
    },{
        stageName: 'Build',
        actions: [buildAction]
    }]
});

Here the Source stage is where we pull the changes from the repository and the Build one is a CodeBuild project which has the following actions in the buildspec file:

1. Install the dependencies (npm i).
2. Run the tests (npm run test).
3. Pack the project (npm run pack).
4. Update/deploy lambda function (aws lambda update-function-code).

In general it does what it supposed to do, however, if the build fails, the only way to find out, which part has failed, is to look to the logs. I would like that it is seen straight from CodePipeline. In this case CodePipeline must have more stages which correlate with each action from CodeBuild. Based on my experience I can do it if for every stage I provide different CodeBuild project.

Question: can I provide same CodeBuild project to the different CodePipeline stages so, that it will execute only part of buildspec file (for example, only running the tests)?

Solution

You can have your buildspec.yml perform different actions based on environment variables. You can then pass different environment variables to CodeBuildAction with environmentVariables.

new codepipeline_actions.CodeBuildAction({
  actionName: 'Build',
  project: buildProject,
  input: sourceInput,
  runOrder: 1,
  environmentVariables: {
    STEP: { value: 'test' }
  }
}),

And then check STEP environment variable in buildspec.yml.

Answered By - kichik