ESP-IDF CI Pipeline Usage

This document explains how to use the ESP-IDF CI pipeline from the separate CI tools repository for automated building and testing of your multi-application ESP-IDF projects.

📋 Overview

The CI pipeline has been moved to a separate repository: N3b3x/hf-espidf-ci-tools

This repository contains the development scripts, while the CI pipeline is maintained separately for better organization and reusability.

🚀 Quick Setup

1. Add CI Workflow to Your Project

Create .github/workflows/build.yml in your repository root:

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name: Build ESP-IDF Applications

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main, develop ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build:
    uses: N3b3x/hf-espidf-ci-tools/.github/workflows/build.yml@main
    with:
      project_dir: "your-esp-idf-project"  # Path to your ESP-IDF project directory
      project_tools_dir: "scripts"  # Path to your scripts directory, maybe [your-esp-idf-project/scripts] or...
      clean_build: false
      auto_clone_tools: true
      max_dec_total: "0"  # Set size budget (0 to disable)

2. Ensure Project Structure

Your repository should have:

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your-repository/
├── .github/workflows/      # CI workflows (at repo root)
│   └── build.yml
├── your-esp-idf-project/   # ESP-IDF project directory
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt      # ESP-IDF project root
│   ├── app_config.yml      # Application configuration
│   ├── main/               # Your main application
│   └── components/         # Your components
└── scripts/                # Development scripts (this repo)
    ├── build_app.sh
    ├── flash_app.sh
    ├── generate_matrix.py
    └── ...

3. Configure Applications

Update your your-esp-idf-project/app_config.yml to define your applications:

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metadata:
  project_name: "Your ESP-IDF Project"
  version: "1.0.0"
  idf_versions: ["release/v5.5"]

apps:
  main_app:
    description: "Main application"
    source_file: "main.cpp"
    build_types: ["Debug", "Release"]
    target: "esp32c6"
  
  test_app:
    description: "Test application"
    source_file: "test_main.cpp"
    build_types: ["Debug"]
    target: "esp32c6"

🔧 CI Pipeline Features

The CI pipeline provides:

  • Matrix Builds: Parallel builds across multiple ESP-IDF versions, build types, and applications
  • Intelligent Caching: Python dependencies and build artifacts are cached
  • Size Reporting: Automatic firmware size analysis and PR comments
  • Size Budgets: Optional enforcement of firmware size limits
  • Artifact Management: Automatic upload of build artifacts

📊 Size Reporting

The CI pipeline automatically generates size reports for pull requests:

App IDF Target Build Flash/RAM summary
main_app v5.5 esp32c6 Debug text: 12345 data: 678 bss: 90
test_app v5.5 esp32c6 Debug text: 9876 data: 543 bss: 45

🛠️ Advanced Configuration

Size Budget Enforcement

Set a maximum firmware size to fail builds that exceed limits:

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jobs:
build:
    uses: N3b3x/hf-espidf-ci-tools/.github/workflows/build.yml@main
    with:
      project_dir: "."
      project_tools_dir: "scripts"
      max_dec_total: "1048576"  # 1MB limit

Custom Project Structure

If your project has a different structure:

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jobs:
  build:
    uses: N3b3x/hf-espidf-ci-tools/.github/workflows/build.yml@main
      with:
      project_dir: "firmware"  # ESP-IDF project in subdirectory
      project_tools_dir: "tools/scripts"  # Scripts in different location
      auto_clone_tools: false  # Don't auto-clone if tools are already present

Important: The .github directory must always be at the repository root, not inside the ESP-IDF project directory.

🔗 Related Documentation

🤝 Support

For CI pipeline issues or feature requests, please visit the CI Tools Repository.

For development script issues, please use this repository’s Issues.