Orbs FAQ

Private orbs are available on any of our current plans.

Both commands and jobs are elements that can be used within orbs.

Commands contain one or many steps, which contain the logic of the orb. Commands generally execute some shell code (bash).

Jobs are a definition of what steps/commands to run and the executor to run them in. Jobs invoke commands, and are orchestrated using workflows.

Orbs can be used with installations of CircleCI server v3. For information on importing and using orbs for server, see the CircleCI Server v3.x orbs guide.

Orbs are not available on installations of server v2.19.x, however, if you process your config prior to committing, orbs can be translated and used. Follow this guide on using git pre-commit hooks to use orbs on server.

All public orbs are open source projects. Issues, bug reports, or even pull requests can be made against the orb’s git repository. Public orb authors may opt to include a link to the git repo on the orb registry. If the git repo link is unavailable, contact support and we will attempt to contact the author. Alternatively, consider forking the orb and publishing your own version.

Orbs use semantic versioning, meaning if you set the major version (example: 3), you will receive all minor and patch updates, where if you statically set the version (example: 3.0.0), no updates will apply, this is the most deterministic and recommended method.