Run YAML Pipeline Stages Based on Dynamic Variable Values

YAML pipeline conditions can be utilized to generate pipelines that meet various criteria, such as dependencies between stages and determining whether a stage should be run or not. In this blog post, we will learn how to run stages based on dynamically generated variables.

Pre-requisites: Azure DevOps Account

1. The following pipeline consists of two stages called StageA and StageB. StageB depends on StageA.

2. Dynamically assign a value to the variable 'dependantstageshouldrun' as below

 Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=dependantstageshouldrun;isOutput=true]true"

3. Add a condition to the dependent stage using the dynamic variable as shown below

condition: and(succeeded(), eq(dependencies.StageA.outputs['JobA.checkCondition.stageshouldrun'], 'false'))

Following is the full YAML pipeline

pool:
  Azure Pipelines
  
stages:
- stage: StageA
  jobs:
  - job: JobA
    steps:
      - powershell: Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=dependantstageshouldrun;isOutput=true]true"

        name: checkCondition

- stage: StageB
  condition: and(succeeded(), eq(dependencies.StageA.outputs['JobA.checkCondition.dependantstageshouldrun'], 'true'))

  dependsOn: StageA
  jobs:
  - job: JobB
    steps:
    - powershell:  Write-Host "This is Stage B"

Stage B runs only when the condition in Stage B is true, as shown in the image below.

Change the 'dependantstageshouldrun' variable value to false in Stage A and rerun the pipeline. Then StageB will be skipped because the condition is not fulfilled.