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View the variables entered when running a manual pipeline

Problem to solve

When users run a manual pipeline and specify custom variables, the values of these variables cannot be seen once the pipeline is created. This can make it difficult to understand the outcomes of a manual pipeline run.

Intended users

User experience goal

Users who have access to the Pipelines page should easily see which variables were manually specified in a manual pipeline run. Privileged roles/users will be able to view the values of these variables.

Proposal

We propose adding a new "Manual Variables" tab at the pipeline level. This tab will list all manually specified variables for the pipeline run. There is a separate issue #22615 (closed) to display these variables in the job log.

The proposed design follows the same principles mentioned in the related issue above, being "secure by default" and "secure by design." All specified variables will have their values hidden by default. Only privileged roles/users can reveal these values. We've chosen this approach for the following reasons:

  • Pipeline pages in public projects can be accessed by anyone by default, so hiding variable values prevents accidental exposure of sensitive information.
  • There are different security concerns for non-protected and protected branches/tags, as discussed in the comment thread.
  • This approach ensures consistency with existing security measures for CI/CD variables.
Old proposal Add the custom variable information directly to the pipeline page under the jobs tab.

Permissions and Security

The new Manual Variables tab is available to anyone who can access the pipeline page, but only privileged roles/users can reveal the variable values.

Available Tier

  • Free

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

Users can easily view the custom variables used in their manual pipeline runs.

Edited by Bonnie Tsang