Publish from CircleCI

A CircleCI job publishes to CloudRepo the way your laptop does: the build tool sends a repository token with the upload. What changes is where the token lives. Keep it in a CircleCI context, which gives every job that names the context an environment variable, and let a committed config file name that variable instead of holding the token.

Before you start

• A repository, and a repository token that reaches it. A token that publishes is Read + write; a job that only pulls needs Read only.
• A token you create under Repository Tokens belongs to your account. Deleting a user from your organization deletes that user’s tokens, and any job using one stops authenticating. So create the token as an account that outlives any one person: a user you make for builds (see Create Your First User), signed in to the admin portal when it mints the token. The owner can instead create a service key, which belongs to your organization rather than to a user.
• Your repository URL, https://your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo, and the username that Maven, Gradle, Python and Docker clients send: the email address of the account that created the token. npm sends the token alone.

Store the token in a context

1. In CircleCI, open Org, then Contexts, and click Create Context. Name it cloudrepo.
2. Open the context, click Add Environment Variable, name it CLOUDREPO_TOKEN, and paste the token as the value.

A job that lists context: cloudrepo in the workflow receives CLOUDREPO_TOKEN as an environment variable, which is how the files below read it. CircleCI can restrict which members may use a context. See Contexts in CircleCI’s documentation.

To keep the token with one project instead, open Project Settings, then Environment Variables, and add CLOUDREPO_TOKEN there. CircleCI hides the value once it is saved, and the job then needs no context: line. See Set an environment variable.

Keep the token off the command line, which logs and process listings can show. The blocks on this page pass it through the environment or a file the tool reads.

Publish from a workflow

Pick your client. The choice is remembered on every page of these docs. Each tab has the same parts: a file that names the token’s variable, the repository settings of your build, and the .circleci/config.yml. Commit them; none holds the token. Each workflow runs when you push a tag that starts with release-.

Maven

Maven reads the credential from a settings file. Commit this one as .mvn/settings.xml; ${env.CLOUDREPO_TOKEN} is replaced by the environment variable when Maven runs. Replace you@example.com with the email address of the account that created the token.

.mvn/settings.xml

<settings>
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>cloudrepo</id>
      <username>you@example.com</username>
      <password>${env.CLOUDREPO_TOKEN}</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

The <id> must match the repository’s <id> in your pom.xml. <distributionManagement> is where mvn deploy publishes:

pom.xml

<distributionManagement>
  <repository>
    <id>cloudrepo</id>
    <url>https://your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo</url>
  </repository>
</distributionManagement>

The job runs in CircleCI’s OpenJDK image, which carries Maven, and passes the settings file with --settings. The workflow gives the job the context and a tag filter:

.circleci/config.yml

version: 2.1
jobs:
  publish:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/openjdk:17.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: mvn --batch-mode --settings .mvn/settings.xml deploy
workflows:
  publish:
    jobs:
      - publish:
          context:
            - cloudrepo
          filters:
            tags:
              only: /^release-.*/
            branches:
              ignore: /.*/

Expected: the job ends with BUILD SUCCESS, and the artifact is listed in the repository in the admin portal. To resolve dependencies from the same repository in a build, add a <repositories> block with the same URL; see Maven Repositories.

Gradle

Gradle reads the token from the environment in the build script. Replace you@example.com with the email address of the account that created the token.

build.gradle.kts

publishing {
    publications {
        create<MavenPublication>("library") {
            from(components["java"])
        }
    }
    repositories {
        maven {
            url = uri("https://your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo")
            credentials {
                username = "you@example.com"
                password = providers.environmentVariable("CLOUDREPO_TOKEN").orNull
            }
        }
    }
}

.orNull keeps every other Gradle command working on a machine where the variable is not set; only publish needs it. Add the java-library and maven-publish plugins to the plugins block if your build does not have them.

.circleci/config.yml

version: 2.1
jobs:
  publish:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/openjdk:17.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: gradle publish
workflows:
  publish:
    jobs:
      - publish:
          context:
            - cloudrepo
          filters:
            tags:
              only: /^release-.*/
            branches:
              ignore: /.*/

If your project has the Gradle wrapper, run ./gradlew publish instead. A Groovy build script takes the same maven { ... } block under publishing { repositories { ... } }, with the credential read from System.getenv("CLOUDREPO_TOKEN").

npm

npm replaces ${CLOUDREPO_TOKEN} in .npmrc with the environment variable of that name, so this file can be committed. Keep the trailing / on both lines, and keep the second line identical to the registry URL without https:.

.npmrc

registry=https://your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo/
//your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo/:_authToken=${CLOUDREPO_TOKEN}

npm sends the token on its own, so there is no username to set.

.circleci/config.yml

version: 2.1
jobs:
  publish:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/node:lts
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: npm publish
workflows:
  publish:
    jobs:
      - publish:
          context:
            - cloudrepo
          filters:
            tags:
              only: /^release-.*/
            branches:
              ignore: /.*/

The same .npmrc and context serve npm ci and npm install in a job that only pulls. For a scoped package, or a repository that sits beside the public registry, see npm Repositories.

pip

twine uploads a built package. It reads its username and password from TWINE_USERNAME and TWINE_PASSWORD, which the step sets from the context’s variable, and takes the repository URL without /simple/. Replace you@example.com with the email address of the account that created the token.

.circleci/config.yml

version: 2.1
jobs:
  publish:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/python:3.13
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: |
          pip wheel . --no-deps -w dist
          pip install twine
          export TWINE_USERNAME=you@example.com
          export TWINE_PASSWORD="$CLOUDREPO_TOKEN"
          twine upload --repository-url https://your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo dist/*
workflows:
  publish:
    jobs:
      - publish:
          context:
            - cloudrepo
          filters:
            tags:
              only: /^release-.*/
            branches:
              ignore: /.*/

To install from the repository in a job, set PIP_INDEX_URL from the variable rather than passing --index-url, which would put the token on the command line. See Repository Tokens for the URL, and write the @ in your email address as %40.

Docker

Log in to the host alone, with your email address and the token on standard input, then build and push. The image reference carries the repository after the host. CircleCI’s setup_remote_docker step is what allows Docker commands to run in the job; it works with the docker executor used below and not with the machine executor.

.circleci/config.yml

version: 2.1
jobs:
  publish-image:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/base:stable
    steps:
      - checkout
      - setup_remote_docker
      - run: |
          echo "$CLOUDREPO_TOKEN" | docker login your-org.mycloudrepo.io --username you@example.com --password-stdin
          docker build -t your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo/my-app:1.0.0 .
          docker push your-org.mycloudrepo.io/repositories/your-repo/my-app:1.0.0
workflows:
  publish:
    jobs:
      - publish-image:
          context:
            - cloudrepo
          filters:
            tags:
              only: /^release-.*/
            branches:
              ignore: /.*/

Use your own image name and tag. The password is the repository token, not a portal password. More: Docker Repositories.

When publishing fails

• 401 Unauthorized. The credential was refused. The username must be the email address of the account that created the token, and the token must not be expired or revoked. Check that the variable is named CLOUDREPO_TOKEN, that the job lists the context that holds it, and that its value is the whole token. The full list is on Repository Tokens.
• 403 Forbidden. The token does not reach this repository, or it is Read only and the job publishes. Create a Read + write token that includes the repository.
• 409 Conflict from mvn deploy. The release version you are publishing already exists, and Overwrite Protection refuses to replace it. Publish a new version, or use a -SNAPSHOT version while you iterate. See Maven Overwrite Protection. Python repositories have the same setting: Python Repositories.