CircleCI orbs
Accelerate application development with reusable config. Condense repeated pieces of code into a single line with orbs.
What is an orb?
An orb is a reusable package of YAML configuration that condenses repeated pieces of config into a single line of code.
What are the benefits of orbs?
Orbs are reusable snippets of code that help automate repeated processes, speed up project setup, and make it easy to integrate with third-party tools.
- Save time on project configuration
- Increase organizational efficiency
- Simplify third-party integrations
How do you use an orb?
Use a pre-built orb
To use a pre-built orb, copy the config code from the orbs registry into your team’s config file. Our extensive list of orbs are held in an open source code library. Try something new without committing days of engineering time to setting up a new system, feature, or DevOps practice.
Create an orb for your team
If you don’t see an orb that fits your needs, create a specialized orb using our Best Practices and Getting Started guides. Our Orb Development Kit makes the authoring process simple, with automated testing and deployment on CircleCI. If your team wants to share configuration across multiple projects, exclusive to your organization, you can create private orbs. All the orbs you create can be easily tracked, saved for future use, and updated from within the CircleCI application.
Orb use cases
| Artifacts | Deploy to your preferred package manager. Learn about artifact orbs |
| Build | Access all your favorite build tools in one place. Integrate them with single lines of code. Learn about build orbs |
| Code analysis | Simplify the testing and inspection of code quality by using orbs. Learn about code analysis orbs |
| Containers | Build, test, and deploy your applications in portable, lightweight containers. Learn about container orbs |
| Deployment | Ship your applications to the most popular hosting environments, including AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Learn about deployment orbs |
| Security | Static and dynamic security testing tools to keep your applications safe and within compliance. Learn about security orbs |
| Testing | The right testing tools to test against every scenario. From end-to-end and everything in between. Learn about testing orbs |
| Kubernetes | Find all the tools necessary for working with Kubernetes deployments, including Helm, AWS EKS, GCP GKE, Azure AKS, and more. Learn about Kubernetes orbs |
| Languages | Get language and framework specific tools for the most popular tech stacks. Easily install Node, Python, Ruby, Android, and Windows with all the tools necessary for building your software. Learn about language orbs |
| Monitoring | Add observability into all the areas of your software development pipeline. Minimize response and resolution times by adding the tools you need to keep track of what you are building. Learn about monitoring orbs |
Can I write my own orb?
Yes!
CircleCI’s orb ecosystem is designed to be flexible and extendable. You can create custom orbs to standardize your team’s workflows, automate repetitive tasks, or integrate with third-party services. Once written, these orbs can be shared privately within your organization or published publicly for the broader CircleCI community.
To get started, refer to the orb authoring guide.
What is a private vs public orb?
Public orbs
A public orb is a reusable package of CircleCI configuration available to anyone in the CircleCI community through the orb registry.
Private orbs
A private orb is restricted to specific organizations or teams. Private orbs allow organizations to maintain confidentiality over proprietary workflows while standardizing CI/CD processes internally.
Learn more
Blog post
Automate and scale with orbs
Blog post
Build private CircleCI orbs on any organization
Tutorial
CI/CD alerts with Slack and Twilio orbs
Blog post
Build, test, and deploy workflows for orbs
Tutorial
Using multiple orbs in a pipeline
Case study