GitHub has announced a beta public release of a new Checks API that aims to make it possible to integrate code checks into a continuous integration workflow. It is the first feature built specifically for repositories with Travis CI GitHub Apps integration enabled. Checks API compatibility with CircleCI is on the way.

The Checks API, which allows developers to build sophisticated tools for continuous integration (CI), linting, and acceptance testing on GitHub is now available in public beta. This new functionality currently works with the GitHub REST API, with GraphQL support coming soon.

It provides new functionality which allows integrations and GitHub to communicate more comprehensively about the checks run against code changes. These changes will improve workflow by allowing users to view feedback from code checks directly in the pull request view, see the line of code causing a problem in the diff view, “re-run” checks, and more-all within the GitHub user interface.

The GitHub Checks API can be regarded as an evolution of the traditional GitHub status API, which allows external services to mark commits with a status code, i.e. fail or pass, which is reflected in pull requests involving those commits. Using the Checks API, integrators have now more fine-grained control over the status of a commit or PR, including success, failure, neutral, cancelled, timed_out, or action_required, as well as queued, in_progress, or completed. Additionally, a check can include a variety of data, such as textual information, images, etc This allows to build sophisticated workflows where you have a number of checks run against a commit or PR and GitHub will show you which ones pass and which ones fail and which require attention.

For Travis CL projects on GitHub Apps, GitHub Checks API allows you to view build stages, jobs, and results, so you can get a complete picture of the health of your projects directly from GitHub. You can also see your config and re-run builds from within the GitHub Checks UI.  An additional “Checks” tab in a Pull Request where you will see Travis CI listed. The GitHub Checks page shows a detailed summary of your build and gives you the ability to re-run it directly from the GitHub Checks page.

Checks API is available to GitHub Apps, the new name for GitHub Integrations as we reported last year, through a new granular permission: checks.  

More Information

New Checks API public beta

Introducing the Checks API, a better way to connect integrations and code

Checks API documentation

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