Advanced usage and {tic} integration"

In circle: R Client Package for Circle CI

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  eval = !identical(Sys.getenv("CI"), "true") && !identical(Sys.getenv("CRAN"), "true")
)

Overview

This vignette covers advanced workflows with {circle} and how to integrate them with {tic}. It assumes you have completed the basics in the "Getting Started" vignette.

Advanced API usage

Pipelines, workflows, and jobs

Use the high-level helpers to browse recent activity and drill down into details.

# list recent pipelines for a repo
circle::get_pipelines(owner = "ropensci", repo = "circle")

# list workflows of a given pipeline id
# (replace with a pipeline id from the previous result)
circle::get_workflows(pipeline_id = "<pipeline-id>")

# list jobs of a workflow
circle::get_jobs(workflow_id = "<workflow-id>")

Restarting and retrying

# trigger a new build (pipeline) for a branch
circle::new_build(branch = "main")

# retry a workflow (if supported by the API)
circle::retry_workflow(workflow_id = "<workflow-id>")

Artifacts and logs

# list and download build artifacts
arts <- circle::get_build_artifacts(job_number = 123)
arts

Environment variables

# read and set environment variables in a project context
circle::get_env_vars(owner = "ropensci", repo = "circle")
circle::set_env_var(owner = "ropensci", repo = "circle", name = "MY_TOKEN", value = "***")

Deep integration with {tic}

The {tic} package provides a CI-agnostic DSL and ready-made templates for CircleCI. Combine {circle} (API client) with {tic} (workflow setup) to automate checks and deployments.

Initialize CircleCI with {tic}

# writes .circleci/config.yml and a tic.R with sensible defaults
tic::use_circle_yml()

# or go through the interactive wizard
tic::use_tic()

Customize stages

Edit tic.R to add or modify stages. For example, enable pkgdown deployment only on tags:

if (ci_has_env("BUILD_PKGDOWN") && tic::on_tag()) {
  get_stage("deploy") %>>% {
    tic::step_do_call("pkgdown::build_site")
    tic::step_do_call("tic::do_pkgdown")
  }
}

Authentication and permissions

For deployments, set up a user key once using {circle}:

circle::use_circle_deploy()

This adds a user key on CircleCI and registers the corresponding key in your GitHub account, so that tic::deploy() can push the pkgdown site to gh-pages.

Making vignettes robust on CI/CRAN

Ensure vignettes build in non-interactive environments by guarding heavy code (already enabled at the top of this vignette):

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  eval = !identical(Sys.getenv("CI"), "true") && !identical(Sys.getenv("CRAN"), "true")
)

See also

• Getting Started (introductory guide)
• Using {circle} with {tic} (step-by-step setup walkthrough)

circle documentation built on Jan. 22, 2026, 5:08 p.m.