Introduction to Authoring Orbs
Cloud Server v3.x Quick start
Orbs take reusable configuration and package it in a way that can be published to the Orb Registry and imported into multiple configuration files. If you manage multiple, similar projects, consider abstracting out your config with orbs.
Before authoring an orb, it is recommended that you become familiar with the CircleCI config and authoring parameterized reusable config elements pages.
Orbs consist of three main elements:
Practice with inline orbs. Inline orbs can be defined within a single config file for easy and quick testing.
Orb authors automatically agree to the CircleCI Code Sharing Terms of Service. All publicly published orbs are made available on the Orb Registry under the MIT License agreement. For more information, see Orb Licensing.
Getting started
Orb CLI
To begin creating orbs, you will need to set up the CircleCI CLI on your local machine, with a personal access token. For a full list of orb-related commands inside the CircleCI CLI, visit CircleCI CLI help.
Permissions matrix
Orb CLI commands are scoped to different user permission levels, set by your VCS. You are the owner of your own organization. If you are authoring or publishing orbs for a namespace owned by another organization, you may require assistance from your organization admin:
| Orb Command | Permission Scope |
|---|---|
circleci namespace create | Owner |
circleci orb init | Owner |
circleci orb create | Owner |
circleci orb publish development version | Member |
circleci orb publish production version | Owner |
Register a namespace
Every organization registered on CircleCI is able to claim one unique namespace. This includes your personal organization and any organization you are a member of. As each organization or user account is limited to a single namespace, in order to register the namespace for an organization you must be the owner of the organization.
Enter the following command to claim your namespace, if you have not yet claimed one:
circleci namespace create <name> --org-id <your-organization-id>
Note: If you need help finding your organization ID, visit the Introducrtion to the Circleci Web App page.
Next steps
- Continue on to the Orb Authoring Process guide for information on developing your orb.
- Alternatively, to find out more about orbs read the Orb Concepts page.
Help make this document better
This guide, as well as the rest of our docs, are open source and available on GitHub. We welcome your contributions.
- Suggest an edit to this page (please read the contributing guide first).
- To report a problem in the documentation, or to submit feedback and comments, please open an issue on GitHub.
- CircleCI is always seeking ways to improve your experience with our platform. If you would like to share feedback, please join our research community.
Need support?
Our support engineers are available to help with service issues, billing, or account related questions, and can help troubleshoot build configurations. Contact our support engineers by opening a ticket.
You can also visit our support site to find support articles, community forums, and training resources.
CircleCI Documentation by CircleCI is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
