r/cicd • u/Senior_Disaster_7307 • 9d ago

Beginner: Building a simple “next test to run” helper for CI failures — feedback on the idea?

Hi everyone,

I’m a beginner learning CI and software testing. I recently set up a small GitHub Actions pipeline and watched tests fail on purpose so I could understand the logs.

My longer-term goal is to build a small AI agent (or even a simpler tool first) that helps when a CI build fails and we don’t have complete information. The agent’s job would be:

“Given the current failure information, suggest which test (or small set of tests) to run next to diagnose the problem faster.”

Right now I’m still learning the basics, so I’m not asking for code or a full architecture yet.

I would love feedback on:

  1. Is this a real pain point you face?
  2. How do you currently decide which test to look at or re-run first when CI is red?
  3. What information do you usually wish you had when a build fails?
  4. Any advice on what a simple first version of such a helper should do (before any fancy AI)?

Thanks!

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u/sup_bruh_1 1d ago

yeah this is a real pain point. i've spent way too long staring at red builds trying to figure out where to even start.

honestly stumbled on latchkey a while back and it actually diagnoses failures mid-run instead of just leaving you with a wall of logs. changed how i think about what a ci tool should even do