
unblock-pr
โ 139by datadog-labs ยท part of datadog-labs/agent-skills
Load when investigating a failing PR CI pipeline or checking PR health. Attributes each CI failure as flaky, infra, or regression, proposes a targeted action, and reports code coverage and quality/security status.
This is the playbook your agent receives when the skill activates โ you don't need to read it to use the skill, but it's here to audit before installing.
Unblock PR
One-line summary: Investigate a failing PR CI pipeline โ attribute each failure as flaky, infra, or regression and propose a targeted action.
Requires: dd-pup skill (pup CLI installed and authenticated), triage-flaky-test skill (for flaky failure deep investigation).
Backend
Detection โ At the start of every invocation, before taking any action, determine which backend to use:
- If the user passed
--backend pupanywhere โ use pup mode immediately. Skip steps 2โ4. - Check whether
search_datadog_ci_pipeline_eventsappears in your available tools. - If present โ use MCP mode throughout. Call tools exactly as named in this skill's workflow sections.
- If absent โ check whether
pupis executable: runpup --versionvia Bash. If the command exits successfully (exit code 0), pup is available. - If pup responds โ use pup mode throughout. Translate every tool call using the Tool Reference appendix at the bottom of this file.
- If neither is available โ stop and tell the user:
"Neither the Datadog MCP server nor the pup CLI is available. Connect the MCP server or install pup (
brew install datadog-labs/pack/pup)."
pup invocation rules:
- Invoke via Bash. pup always outputs JSON โ parse directly.
- Repository IDs passed to pup must be fully lowercase (the API rejects mixed-case):
github.com/datadog/my-repo, notgithub.com/DataDog/my-repo. - If pup returns a 401/403, tell the user to run
pup auth refreshorpup auth login.
Input
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| PR branch | The branch under investigation (e.g. my-feature-branch) |
| Repository | Lowercase, no-schema URL (e.g. github.com/org/repo). Derive from git remote get-url origin if not provided. |
Workflow
STEP 0 โ Parse Input
Derive repository ID and default branch from git if not provided:
# Repository ID: fully lowercase, no-schema URL (the API rejects mixed-case)
git remote get-url origin
# Strip protocol and trailing .git, then lowercase the result
# e.g. https://github.com/DataDog/my-repo.git โ github.com/datadog/my-repo
# Default branch
git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD
# Strip refs/remotes/origin/ prefix โ fall back to main if unsetSTEP 1 โ Get PR CI Summary (run in parallel)
Pipeline failures:
Tool: search_datadog_ci_pipeline_events
query: @ci.status:error @git.branch:<branch> @git.repository.id_v2:"<repo>"
ci_level: job
from: now-24hTest failures (only if pipeline results include test-runner jobs):
Tool: search_datadog_test_events
query: @test.status:fail @git.branch:<branch> @git.repository.id_v2:"<repo>"
from: now-24h
test_level: testRun both in parallel. Collect all distinct @test.service values from test event results. If more than one distinct service is found, note each separately in the triage brief โ do not collapse them into a single service filter. If pipeline results contain only infrastructure job types (build, lint, deploy) with no test-runner output, discard test results and skip to STEP 3.
STEP 1.5 โ Fetch PR Health (run in parallel with STEP 1)
This step runs unconditionally โ PR health context is valuable whether CI is red or green.
Code coverage (both modes):
Tool: get_datadog_code_coverage_branch_summary
repository_id: <repo>
branch: <branch>PR number resolution (MCP mode only โ skip if PR number already provided as input):
Tool: get_prs_by_head_branch
repo_url: https://<repo>
head_branch: <branch>Use the first open PR returned. If no open PR is found, skip the quality/security fetch and report "No data available" for Quality and Security.
Code quality and security (MCP mode only โ only if PR number is available):
Tool: search_pr_insights
repo_url: https://<repo>
pr_number: <pr_number>Extract only code_quality and code_security from products_status. Ignore failed_tests, flaky_tests, and failed_jobs โ CI data comes from STEP 1โ3.
pup mode note: PR number resolution and
search_pr_insightsare not available in pup. Quality and Security always show "No data available" in pup mode.
STEP 2 โ Blame Guard per Failing Job
First check whether @error_classification.domain / @error_classification.type are present on job events from STEP 1 โ if populated, use them as primary classification signals.
For each failing job where classification is still needed, run both checks in parallel:
Default branch check โ was this job already failing before this PR?
Tool: aggregate_datadog_ci_pipeline_events
query: @ci.status:error @ci.job.name:"<job>" @git.branch:<default-branch> @git.repository.id_v2:"<repo>"
ci_level: job
aggregation: count
from: now-24hBlast radius check โ is this job failing on other branches too?
Tool: aggregate_datadog_ci_pipeline_events
query: @ci.status:error @ci.job.name:"<job>" @git.repository.id_v2:"<repo>"
ci_level: job
aggregation: count
group_by: ["@git.branch"]
from: now-24hPerformance fallback: if the blast radius query is slow or times out, skip it and rely on the default branch check alone.
STEP 3 โ Classify Each Failure
Priority order:
- If
@error_classification.domain/@error_classification.typepresent โ use as primary signal - If test failure AND test in
get_datadog_flaky_testswithflaky_test_state:activeโ flaky - Use blame guard results:
| Failing on default branch? | Failing on โฅ3 other branches? | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | infra (pre-existing, widespread) |
| Yes | No | infra (pre-existing on default branch) |
| No | No | regression (introduced by this PR) |
| No | Yes | flaky (intermittent, cross-branch) |
| Insufficient data | โ | unknown |
STEP 4 โ Produce Triage Brief
One entry per failing job:
PR CI Triage Brief
==================
Branch: <branch>
Repo: <repo>
Job: <job-name>
Classification: <flaky | infra | regression | unknown>
Evidence: <1 key data point โ error message, pipeline count, or test result>
Confidence: <high | medium | low>
Recommended: <action>
[repeat for each failing job]
Overall: <N> failures โ <e.g. "1 regression, 1 flaky, 1 infra">
PR Health
=========
Coverage: <X>% on <branch> | No data available
Quality: <N violations (X high, Y medium)> | No violations | No data available
Security: <N violations> | No violations | No data availableAll three lines always appear. Use "No data available" when a tool returned no data or is unavailable (pup mode for Quality/Security).
STEP 5 โ Propose Actions
regression โ Prompt user to investigate their code changes. No write action available.
flaky โ Load triage-flaky-test skill for deep investigation. Invoke it once per distinct failing test name classified as flaky, passing the test name (from @test.name in STEP 1 results) and the derived repository as inputs. That skill will:
- Attempt an agent-native fix using
flaky_category+ stack trace - Propose quarantine via
update_datadog_flaky_test_statesif a quick fix isn't possible
infra โ Before proposing a retry, assess whether the failure is transient:
- Check
@error_classification.typeand error message for signals liketimeout,runner unavailable,network error,quota exceededโ transient failures where a retry is likely to help - If the error is deterministic (build misconfiguration, missing secret, explicit test assertion failure), a retry is unlikely to help โ suggest investigating the root cause
- If the failure is pre-existing on the default branch, inform the user โ a retry will likely fail again; await the upstream fix instead
If transient:
MCP mode โ GitHub Actions: use retry_datadog_ci_job. From the failing job event, collect:
@ci.provider.nameโ ci_provider ("github")@git.repository.id_v2โ repository_id@ci.job.idโ job_id- event
idfield โ event_uuid (optional)
For pipeline_id: use @ci.pipeline.id directly if it matches ^\d+-[1-9]\d*$ (e.g. 26027867390-1). If it is a bare numeric run ID, combine it with @github.run_attempt from the same event: "{@ci.pipeline.id}-{@github.run_attempt}". Fallback: parse @ci.pipeline.url โ extract {run_id} and {attempt} from runs/{run_id}/attempts/{attempt}.
After retry returns, confirm via search_datadog_ci_pipeline_events (query: @ci.job.name:"<job>" @git.branch:<branch>, from: now-5m) that a new run appears.
Fallback / pup mode โ GitHub Actions: extract the run ID from @ci.pipeline.url:
gh run rerun <run_id> --failedGitLab / other providers (both modes): share @ci.pipeline.url and direct to the provider UI.
unknown โ Suggest checking raw job logs via the CI provider UI or @ci.pipeline.url from the pipeline event.
Tool Reference
This appendix applies only in pup mode. In MCP mode, use the tool names in the workflow sections directly.
| MCP Tool | pup Command |
|---|---|
search_datadog_ci_pipeline_events (ci_level: job) | pup cicd events search --query "..." --level job --from 24h --limit 50 |
aggregate_datadog_ci_pipeline_events (count, group_by branch) | pup cicd events aggregate --query "..." --compute count --group-by "@git.branch" --from 24h |
aggregate_datadog_ci_pipeline_events (count, no group_by) | pup cicd events aggregate --query "..." --compute count --from 24h |
search_datadog_test_events | pup cicd tests search --query "..." --from 24h --limit 50 |
get_datadog_flaky_tests | pup cicd flaky-tests search --query "flaky_test_state:active ..." |
update_datadog_flaky_test_states | Write body to /tmp/flaky-update.json, then pup test-optimization flaky-tests update --file /tmp/flaky-update.json |
get_datadog_code_coverage_branch_summary | repo_lower=$(echo "<repo>" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]') && pup code-coverage branch-summary --repo "$repo_lower" --branch "<branch>" |
get_prs_by_head_branch | Not available in pup โ skip; report "No data available" for Quality/Security |
search_pr_insights | Not available in pup โ skip; report "No data available" for Quality/Security |
retry_datadog_ci_job | Not available in pup โ use gh run rerun <run_id> --failed instead |
npx skills add https://github.com/datadog-labs/agent-skills --skill unblock-prRun this in your project โ your agent picks the skill up automatically.
No common issues documented yet. If you hit a problem, the repository's GitHub Issues page is the best place to look.
Licensed under MITโ you can use, modify, and redistribute it under that license's terms.
View the full license file on GitHub โ