Alerts: Now with pings for when your builds are stuck

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When developing, staying ahead of potential issues to ensure optimal performance in your workflows is…utopia. Knowing this, our team is thrilled to introduce a series of significant enhancements to our Alerts feature within the Insights add-on. These updates are designed to streamline your workflow, enhance monitoring capabilities, and ultimately, give you more control before things break, or spin out of control. Let’s delve into what’s new and how it can help you in your mobile app development process.

A new UI for enhanced usability

Screenshot of new Alerts UI with step-by-step configuration.

We’ve given Alerts a fresh coat of paint and a usability boost. No more navigating through a cumbersome setup process that felt like filling out an endless Google form survey (sorry about that). The new interface introduces a step-by-step configuration process, making it intuitive and in line with Bitrise’s design standards for a seamless user experience. Now, setting up alerts is not only faster but also a way nicer journey.

Advanced multi-selection filtering options

Screenshot of a configured alert that monitors multiple workflows, pipelines, stages and machines simultaneously.

Understanding the diverse needs of our users, we’ve expanded our filtering capabilities. Previously, setting up alerts for specific workflows or pipelines could quickly become a tedious task, requiring multiple alerts for comprehensive monitoring. With our latest update, you can now select multiple filters within a single alert. This means if you care about multiple workflows, you can effortlessly monitor them all without the clutter of numerous alerts, or having to set up every single one individually. Have everything in one place, and simplify your monitoring.

‘Below threshold’ alerts

Screenshot of a configured alert that monitors a threshold below 20%, after which a notification will be sent to the user’s connected channel.

Responding to feedback from our community, we’ve introduced the ability to set alerts for metrics that fall below a certain threshold. This new feature complements the capability to alert on metrics exceeding thresholds, offering a more well-rounded monitoring tool. This is particularly beneficial for metrics like cache hit rate or build count, where lower values can indicate potential issues requiring attention. This ensures a more comprehensive and effective approach to metric monitoring, enabling proactive issue detection and resolution.

New metrics for Alerts

An overview of new metrics for alerts. 

Perhaps the most exciting update is the introduction of an array of new metrics to Alerts. With Bitrise Insights, you now have access to detailed metrics across builds, tests, and utilization, including but not limited to caching insights, git insights, and a wealth of utilization metrics. This expansion means you can set alerts for a broader range of metrics, ensuring you’re always informed and in control of your app’s performance and resource utilization. Whether it’s monitoring cycle times, merge frequencies, knowing when your builds are stuck or keeping an eye on billing-related metrics, these new alerts ensure you’re never caught off guard.

Git Insights

  • Pull request cycle time: You can already monitor the average time it takes from the first commit on a PR to when it is merged. Now, get notified of delays and areas for improvement in this process.
  • PR development time: A subset of the cycle time, PR development time measures the time between the first commit and when it is ready for a review. Alerts can surface trends that might indicate overly complex changes or areas where developers require additional support. ‍
  • PR review time: Stay informed about the average time it takes for pull requests to be reviewed. Alerts can help you surface bottlenecks in your code review process and ensure timely feedback for developers.
  • PR merge frequency: Monitor the rate at which pull requests are merged into your codebase. Alerts can help you identify trends in development velocity and potential bottlenecks in the merging process.

Caching Insights

  • Build cache hit rate: Stay informed about how effectively your build cache is reducing redundant build steps. A declining hit rate might indicate changes to your build process or dependencies that invalidate the cache. 

Utilization Insights

  • Build cache network egress usage (enterprise customers): Monitor the amount of data transferred out of your build cache. Alerts can help you identify potential network bottlenecks or inefficiencies in your cache utilization.
  • Artifact storage usage (enterprise customers): Keep an eye on your artifact storage consumption to avoid exceeding capacity limits. Alerts can help you proactively manage storage usage and implement cleanup strategies.
  • Workflow count (enterprise customers): Track your total number of workflows running on Bitrise. Alerts can signal unexpected surges or dips in workflow activity that might require investigation or resource scaling. ️
  • Peak concurrencies macOS & Linux (enterprise customers): Set alerts to be notified when the number of concurrent builds on macOS or Linux machines reaches a predefined threshold. This can help you identify resource constraints and optimize your build pipeline for efficient execution.
  • Queue macOS & Linux (enterprise customers): Monitor the backlog of builds waiting to be executed on macOS or Linux machines. Alerts can signal capacity issues and help you identify bottlenecks that prevent builds from starting promptly. 

To conclude

With the enhancements to the Alerts feature in the Bitrise Insights add-on we aim to provide a robust, user-friendly platform for mobile app developers. By streamlining processes, expanding capabilities, and offering greater control over your app’s performance monitoring, we’re focused on supporting your development process every step of the way. Explore these new features and harness the full potential of Bitrise Insights today.