CircleCI Cheat Sheet

CircleCI cheat sheet with real commands and snippets for setup, core workflows, debugging, and production-safe automation patterns. If you are working across tools, pair this with the Git Cheat Sheet and Docker Cheat Sheet.

Setup and Installation

Goal: Verify installation and CLI metadata

# Resolve command path from current shell
command -v circleci

# Print installed version to confirm runtime
circleci --version

# Read top-level help before using subcommands
circleci --help

Goal: Install or upgrade the tool on a workstation

# Install CircleCI CLI for local config validation
brew install circleci

# Verify CircleCI CLI version
circleci version

Goal: Run day-to-day commands

# Validate CircleCI config file
circleci config validate -c .circleci/config.yml

# Run local job execution
circleci local execute --job build

# Pack reusable config fragments
circleci config pack .circleci/src > .circleci/config.yml

# Process config with pipeline params
circleci config process .circleci/config.yml

Core Workflows

Goal: Capture command help for quick offline lookup

# Create docs folder for generated command references
mkdir -p docs/cli

# Write help output to a timestamped file
circleci --help > docs/cli/circleci-help.txt

# Search help output for a keyword
rg "config|auth|deploy" docs/cli/circleci-help.txt

Goal: Wrap repetitive commands in a script

# Create scripts directory for local automation
mkdir -p scripts

# Write repeatable health-check script
cat > scripts/check-circleci.sh <<'SH'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
circleci --version
circleci --help >/dev/null
SH

# Make script executable and run it
chmod +x scripts/check-circleci.sh && ./scripts/check-circleci.sh

Configuration and Environment

Goal: Pin environment variables for predictable runs

# Define environment profile for local commands
export CIRCLECI_PROFILE=dev

# Persist profile in local shell configuration
echo 'export CIRCLECI_PROFILE=dev' >> ~/.zshrc

# Reload shell profile changes
source ~/.zshrc

Automation and CI

Goal: Define a working CI pipeline file

version: 2.1
jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/node:22.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run check
      - run: npm run build
workflows:
  ci:
    jobs:
      - build

Goal: Add tool checks to CI pipeline

# Run lint/test/build in strict mode
set -euo pipefail

# Verify CLI exists before invoking workflow
command -v circleci

# Exit quickly if command is unavailable
circleci --version

Debugging and Troubleshooting

Goal: Collect diagnostics when commands fail

# Capture command output and exit code
circleci --help > /tmp/circleci-debug.log 2>&1; echo $?

# Inspect captured diagnostics
tail -n 80 /tmp/circleci-debug.log

# Check current shell PATH entries
echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n'

Common Gotchas

• Pin CircleCI versions in CI so local and pipeline behavior match.
• Check tool authentication context before running write or deploy commands.
• Prefer non-interactive flags in scripts to avoid stalled jobs.
• Capture stderr logs in CI artifacts for faster incident triage.
• Keep secrets in environment variables, not committed scripts.

Related Sheets

• Git Cheat Sheet — daily Git commands and production-ready examples.
• Docker Cheat Sheet — container build, run, and image lifecycle workflows.
• Jest Cheat Sheet — daily Jest commands and production-ready examples.