PR Build Status Skill

Retrieve Azure DevOps build information for GitHub Pull Requests, including Helix test logs.

Tools Required

This skill uses bash together with pwsh (PowerShell 7+) to run the PowerShell scripts. No file editing or other tools are required.

When to Use

• User asks about CI/CD status for a PR
• User asks about failed checks or builds
• User asks "what's failing on PR #XXXXX"
• User wants to see test results
• User asks about Helix failures (device tests, integration tests, etc.)
• User needs to debug why tests are failing on Helix infrastructure

Scripts

All scripts are in .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/

1. Get Build IDs for a PR

pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-PrBuildIds.ps1 -PrNumber <PR_NUMBER>

2. Get Build Status

pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-BuildInfo.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID>
# For failed jobs only:
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-BuildInfo.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID> -FailedOnly

3. Get Build Errors and Test Failures

# Get all errors (build errors + test failures)
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-BuildErrors.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID>

# Get only build/compilation errors
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-BuildErrors.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID> -ErrorsOnly

# Get only test failures
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-BuildErrors.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID> -TestsOnly

4. Get Helix Console Logs

# List all Helix work items and their status
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-HelixLogs.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID>

# Filter by platform
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-HelixLogs.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID> -Platform Windows

# Show console log content for failed work items
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-HelixLogs.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID> -ShowConsoleLog

# Filter by work item name and show more log lines
pwsh .github/skills/pr-build-status/scripts/Get-HelixLogs.ps1 -BuildId <BUILD_ID> -WorkItem "*Lifecycle*" -ShowConsoleLog -TailLines 200

Workflow

Standard Build Failures

1. Get build IDs: Get-PrBuildIds.ps1 -PrNumber XXXXX
2. For each build, get status: Get-BuildInfo.ps1 -BuildId YYYYY -FailedOnly
3. For failed builds, get errors: Get-BuildErrors.ps1 -BuildId YYYYY

Helix Test Failures

1. Get build IDs: Get-PrBuildIds.ps1 -PrNumber XXXXX
2. Find the build with Helix jobs (e.g., maui-pr-devicetests, maui-integration-tests)
3. Get Helix logs: Get-HelixLogs.ps1 -BuildId YYYYY -ShowConsoleLog
4. For specific platform: Get-HelixLogs.ps1 -BuildId YYYYY -Platform Windows -ShowConsoleLog

Understanding Helix Logs

Helix is the .NET engineering infrastructure that runs tests across multiple platforms and device types. Tests that run on Helix include:

• Device tests - Run on real devices/emulators (iOS, Android, Windows, MacCatalyst)
• Integration tests - Run on various OS configurations
• Other distributed tests - Any test scenario that requires Helix infrastructure

When Helix tests fail:

1. Build stage - Compiles and packages the test app/harness
2. Helix submission - Sends the work items to Helix queues
3. Work item execution - Helix runs the tests on target machines/devices
4. Console log - Contains stdout/stderr from the test execution

The Get-HelixLogs.ps1 script retrieves the console logs which show:

• Test execution output
• Any crashes or errors
• Infrastructure issues (timeouts, installation failures, etc.)

Common Helix Failure Patterns

Prerequisites

• gh (GitHub CLI) - authenticated
• pwsh (PowerShell 7+)