Jenkins cheatsheet

Jenkins: Declarative pipeline basics

7 common Jenkins tasks.

A minimal Jenkinsfile

Put a Jenkinsfile in the root of your repository.

pipeline {
  agent any
  stages {
    stage('Build') {
      steps { sh 'make build' }
    }
    stage('Test') {
      steps { sh 'make test' }
    }
  }
}

Run in a Docker container

Run the pipeline inside a container image, so builds have the tools they need.

agent {
  docker { image 'node:24' }
}

Set environment variables

Define variables for the whole pipeline or one stage.

environment {
  NODE_ENV = 'production'
  BUILD_TAG = "${env.JOB_NAME}-${env.BUILD_NUMBER}"
}

Set pipeline options

Add a timeout, keep fewer builds and stop on the first failure.

options {
  timeout(time: 30, unit: 'MINUTES')
  buildDiscarder(logRotator(numToKeepStr: '20'))
  disableConcurrentBuilds()
}

Ask for parameters

Add build parameters, which appear as a form when you run the job.

parameters {
  string(name: 'VERSION', defaultValue: '1.0.0', description: 'Release version')
  booleanParam(name: 'DEPLOY', defaultValue: false)
  choice(name: 'ENV', choices: ['staging', 'production'])
}

Run on a schedule

Trigger builds by cron or by polling the repository. H spreads the load.

triggers {
  cron('H 2 * * 1-5')
  pollSCM('H/15 * * * *')
}

Run a stage conditionally

Skip a stage unless a condition holds.

stage('Deploy') {
  when { branch 'main' }
  steps { sh './deploy.sh' }
}