CI/CD Commands Cheatsheet - CI/CD Pipeline Debugging Reference

When CI hangs in pending or a job fails inexplicably, stop editing the YAML over and over — most clues live in runner status, the failed step's logs, and whether you can reproduce it locally. This table lays out each platform's debugging entry point: rerun failed jobs, capture build logs, check runners and caches. Working through them beats blind config edits.

SysOps·33 commands·Last updated 2026-07-21

GitHub Actions 6

gh run list --limit 10

List the 10 most recent runs to quickly find failed pipelines

gh run view <run-id> --log-failed

View the failed-step logs for a specific run

gh run rerun <run-id> --failed

Rerun only failed jobs, skipping successful ones

gh run cancel <run-id>

Cancel a running or stuck pipeline

gh workflow run deploy.yml --ref main

Manually trigger a specified workflow

gh api repos/:owner/:repo/actions/runners

Check self-hosted runner online status and labels

GitLab CI 6

gitlab-runner list

List runners registered on this machine

gitlab-runner verify

Verify the runner's connection to GitLab

gitlab-runner run

Start the runner in the foreground to pull jobs (debugging)

gitlab-ci-lint < .gitlab-ci.yml

Validate CI configuration syntax

glab ci list --per-page 20

List recent pipelines with the glab CLI

curl -H "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <token>" "https://gitlab/api/v4/projects/:id/pipelines"

Query pipeline status via the API

Jenkins 5

jenkins-cli build <job> -f -v

Trigger and follow build output (common for CLI debugging)

jenkins-cli console <job> <build>

Fetch the full console log for a build

systemctl status jenkins

Check Jenkins service status (stuck or OOM)

ls -lah /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/<job>/builds/

Inspect disk used by build history

jenkins-cli list-jobs

List all job names before batch scripting

Docker CI Builds 5

docker build -t app:ci --target build .

Multi-stage build targeting a specific stage

docker build --cache-from=app:base .

Speed up builds by reusing cache layers

docker tag app:ci registry/app:$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)

Tag with the short git commit hash

docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 .

Multi-arch build and push

docker history app:ci --no-trunc

Inspect each image layer to debug size

Runner & Cache Troubleshooting 5

docker ps --filter "name=runner"

Check if a containerized runner is running

df -h /var/lib/docker

A full CI disk often blocks runners from pulling images or writing logs

act -j <job> -W .github/workflows/ci.yml

Reproduce GitHub Actions locally with act

gitlab-runner exec docker <job>

Reproduce a GitLab CI job locally (older versions)

du -sh ~/.cache/pnpm /root/.cache

Check whether cache dirs are filling the disk

Common Patterns & Best Practices 6

echo "key=value" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Set a step output in GitHub Actions (new syntax)

${{ secrets.NAME }} / $CI_NAME

Reference secrets and CI variables

needs: [build] / depends_on: [test]

Declare job dependencies to control execution order

workflow_dispatch: / schedule: / push:

GitHub Actions trigger configuration

rules: / only: / except:

GitLab CI conditional job execution

artifacts: paths: / expire_in: 1 week

GitLab CI artifact retention and expiry

Tips

If a job stays pending, check runner online status and label matching first, then concurrency limits — not by repeatedly editing YAML.
When cache hit rate is low, check whether the key uses a lockfile hash and whether the path covers the real dependency directory.
CI logs may be retained long-term; never echo secrets or tokens while debugging.
Multi-stage Docker builds separate build dependencies from the runtime, greatly shrinking the final image.
CI variables come in protected and masked types; always mark sensitive values masked to prevent log leakage.
Reproduce CI locally with act (GitHub Actions) or gitlab-runner exec instead of pushing repeatedly.

Official References

Each command links to its official documentation below, so you can verify the latest usage and read deeper.

GitLab CI Docs

Maintained by LaoHand

Publicly updated on Jul 21, 2026, continuously proofread against official docs.

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