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docs: add [skip ci] documentation to CONTRIBUTING.md #8878

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15e3c05
docs: add [skip ci] documentation for contributors
garciadias May 27, 2026
f817537
docs: add quick example to skip-ci section [skip ci]
garciadias May 27, 2026
00d3f3a
DCO Remediation Commit for R. Garcia-Dias <rafaelagd@gmail.com>
garciadias May 27, 2026
f2c539a
docs: add [skip ci] tip to DCO remediation section [skip ci]
garciadias May 27, 2026
13b60ba
Merge branch 'dev' into document-skip-ci-feature
ericspod May 28, 2026
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108 changes: 108 additions & 0 deletions CONTRIBUTING.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -303,6 +303,13 @@ By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
this project or the open source license(s) involved.
```

> **Tip:** If you need to add a DCO remediation commit (e.g., after a force-push
> or rebase), include `[skip ci]` in the commit message so the remediation
> does not trigger unnecessary CI pipelines:
> ```bash
> git commit -s --allow-empty -m 'DCO Remediation Commit for... [skip ci]'
> ```

#### Utility functions

MONAI provides a set of generic utility functions and frequently used routines.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -358,6 +365,107 @@ Ideally, the new branch should be based on the latest `dev` branch.
1. Reviewer and contributor may have discussions back and forth until all comments addressed.
1. Wait for the pull request to be merged.

## Skipping CI

MONAI's CI pipelines run automatically on every push and pull request.
These pipelines can be resource-intensive, especially the full premerge matrix
which spans multiple OSes, Python versions, and PyTorch versions.

To reduce unnecessary resource consumption and speed up iteration, you can
skip CI on commits that don't need automated validation — for example,
documentation-only changes, README updates, workflow YAML changes, or WIP
commits during development.

### Mechanism

GitHub Actions natively supports skipping `push` and `pull_request` workflows
when the commit message contains any of the following strings:

- `[skip ci]`
- `[ci skip]`
- `[no ci]`
- `[skip actions]`
- `[actions skip]`

These are case-insensitive. `[skip ci]` is the recommended convention for
this repository.

Alternatively, you can add a `skip-checks: true` trailer at the end of the
commit message, preceded by two blank lines:

```
commit message

skip-checks: true
```

### Usage

Add the keyword anywhere in the commit message when committing:

```bash
git commit -s -m 'update docs [skip ci]'
```

If the HEAD commit of a pull request contains the skip instruction,
the entire PR's pull_request-triggered workflows are skipped.

### Which workflows are affected

The skip instruction applies only to workflows using `on: push` or
`on: pull_request` events. In this repository, that includes:

- **premerge** (multi-OS lint, tests, packaging, docs build)
- **premerge-min** (minimal dependency matrix)
- **premerge-gpu** (GPU tests)
- **CodeQL analysis**
- **Docker build**
- **Release packaging**
- **Setup/install tests**

The following workflows use different event types (`issue_comment`,
`repository_dispatch`, `schedule`, `workflow_dispatch`) and are **not**
affected by `[skip ci]`:

- **Blossom-CI** (triggered by `/build` comment — maintainers only)
- **ChatOps** (triggered by `/black` or `/integration-test` comment)
- **Integration tests** (triggered by `/integration-test` comment)
- **Cron jobs** (scheduled, not per-commit)
- **Weekly preview** (scheduled, not per-commit)
- **Conda build** (scheduled, not per-commit)

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@coderabbitai coderabbitai Bot May 27, 2026 •
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⚠️ Potential issue | 🟠 Major

🧩 Analysis chain

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
# Description: Verify workflow names and event triggers match documentation.

# List all workflow files and extract their names and 'on:' triggers
fd -e yml -e yaml . .github/workflows/ --exec sh -c '
  echo "=== {} ==="
  echo "Name:"
  gawk "/^name:/ {print; exit}" "{}"
  echo "Triggers:"
  gawk "/^on:/ {p=1} p {print; if (/^[a-z_]+:/ && !/^on:/) exit}" "{}"
  echo
'

Repository: Project-MONAI/MONAI

Length of output: 3371

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

# List all workflow files and dump their `name:` + the full `on:` block (indented YAML) so we don't miss cases like `on:` with indentation.
fd -e yml -e yaml . .github/workflows/ --exec sh -c '
  f="{}"
  echo "=== $f ==="
  echo "-- name (first match) --"
  awk "/^[[:space:]]*name:/ {print; exit}" "$f"
  echo "-- on: block (first contiguous block starting at on:) --"
  awk "
    BEGIN{found=0}
    /^[[:space:]]*on:[[:space:]]*$/ {found=1; print; next}
    found==1 {
      # stop when a top-level key after on: begins (same indentation as on:)
      if ($0 ~ /^[^[:space:]]/ && $0 !~ /^[[:space:]]/) { exit }
      print
    }
  " "$f" | head -n 80
  echo
' | head -n 2000

# Specifically search for expected workflow name strings.
echo "=== rg for documented names ==="
rg -n --hidden --no-ignore-vcs "premerge|min|premerge-gpu|setup|install tests|Setup/install tests|ChatOps|Blossom-CI|Weekly preview|Conda build|Docker build|Release packaging" .github/workflows || true

Repository: Project-MONAI/MONAI

Length of output: 36885

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

python3 - <<'PY'
import os, glob, sys, subprocess, json
try:
    import yaml
except Exception:
    subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install", "-q", "pyyaml"])
    import yaml

files = sorted(glob.glob(".github/workflows/*.yml") + glob.glob(".github/workflows/*.yaml"))
out=[]
for f in files:
    with open(f, "r", encoding="utf-8") as fp:
        data = yaml.safe_load(fp)
    name = data.get("name")
    on = data.get("on")
    events = []
    if isinstance(on, dict):
        events = sorted(on.keys())
    elif isinstance(on, list):
        events = sorted(on)
    elif isinstance(on, str):
        events = [on]
    out.append({
        "file": f,
        "name": name,
        "events": events
    })

# print concise, grouped by whether they have push/pull_request/schedule/issue_comment/dispatch/etc
for item in out:
    print(f'=== {item["file"]} ===')
    print(f'name: {item["name"]}')
    print(f'on events: {item["events"]}')
    print()
PY

Repository: Project-MONAI/MONAI

Length of output: 1072

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

ls -1 .github/workflows

# Show top portion (including `name:` and `on:`) for likely premerge/setup workflows
for f in $(fd -e yml -e yaml .github/workflows/ --exec echo {} | rg -n "premerge|min|setup|install|tests|min|pythonapp-gpu" -o | cut -d: -f1 | sort -u || true); do
  : # no-op (this line just avoids hard failures)
done

# Better: pick by filename substring directly
for f in \
  .github/workflows/pythonapp.yml \
  .github/workflows/pythonapp-premerge.yml \
  .github/workflows/pythonapp-min.yml \
  .github/workflows/*premerge* \
  .github/workflows/*min* \
  .github/workflows/*setup* \
  .github/workflows/*install* \
  .github/workflows/*test* \
; do
  [ -e "$f" ] || continue
  echo "===== $f (head) ====="
  sed -n '1,120p' "$f" | cat -n
done

Repository: Project-MONAI/MONAI

Length of output: 11488

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "=== pythonapp-gpu.yml (head) ==="
sed -n '1,80p' .github/workflows/pythonapp-gpu.yml | cat -n

echo
echo "=== cron.yml (on block presence check) ==="
rg -n "^(on:|on:|  schedule:|schedule:)" .github/workflows/cron.yml || true

echo
echo "=== setupapp.yml (on block presence check) ==="
rg -n "^(on:|  push:|push:|workflow_dispatch:|workflow_dispatch)" .github/workflows/setupapp.yml || true

Repository: Project-MONAI/MONAI

Length of output: 3594

Fix “Which workflows are affected” list: workflow names/events don’t match current triggers

  • premerge / premerge-min in the doc don’t correspond to any workflow name: in .github/workflows/; the push/pull_request work is in tests (incl. min-dep) and build_docs.
  • premerge-gpu (pythonapp-gpu.yml) has its entire on: block commented out, so it isn’t actually a push/pull_request workflow (can’t be “affected by [skip ci]”).
  • “Setup/install tests” is setupapp.yml (name: deploy), which only runs via workflow_dispatch (push/pull_request commented out).
  • “Cron jobs” should reflect scheduled workflows: weekly-preview, cron-ngc-bundle, and cron-conda are scheduled; cron.yml (nightly-crons) has its schedule commented out (workflow_dispatch only).

(Other entries—CodeQL, Docker, release, Blossom-CI, ChatOps, and Integration—match their on: triggers.)

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents 
Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

In `@CONTRIBUTING.md` around lines 413 - 436, The “Which workflows are affected”
list is inaccurate—update it to reflect actual workflow names and their real
triggers: replace `premerge`/`premerge-min` with the workflows that run on
push/pull_request (e.g., tests including min-dep and build_docs), remove or mark
`premerge-gpu`/`pythonapp-gpu.yml` as not affected since its on: block is
commented out, change “Setup/install tests” to note that `setupapp.yml` (name:
deploy) runs only via workflow_dispatch, and list scheduled workflows correctly
as `weekly-preview`, `cron-ngc-bundle`, and `cron-conda` while noting that
`cron.yml` (nightly-crons) currently has its schedule commented out; ensure each
bullet names the workflow (by its workflow name like tests, build_docs,
setupapp/deploy, weekly-preview, cron-ngc-bundle, cron-conda, pythonapp-gpu) and
states whether it is triggered by push/pull_request, schedule, or
workflow_dispatch so the `[skip ci]` behavior is accurate.

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@ericspod ericspod May 28, 2026

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@garciadias in this section you can just state that all other use different event types and don't react to [skip ci], you don't need to list them and we're likely to change things around anyhow in the near future.

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@coderabbitai coderabbitai Bot May 28, 2026

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Seems like the humans are having a chat. I'll hop back into my burrow for now. If you need me again, just tag @coderabbitai in a new comment, and I'll come hopping out!

### Important caveat

If a workflow is skipped via `[skip ci]`, its associated checks remain in
"Pending" state. If your pull request requires those checks to pass before
merging, you will need to push a new commit **without** the skip instruction
to trigger the CI pipelines.

### When to use

Use `[skip ci]` for commits that are safe to skip CI:

- Documentation-only changes (`docs/`, `README.md`, docstrings)
- Workflow configuration changes (`.github/`)
- Repository metadata (`.gitignore`, `CONTRIBUTING.md`, `LICENSE`)
- WIP or draft commits during local development

Do **not** use `[skip ci]` for commits that change:

- Source code in `monai/`
- Test files in `tests/`
- Dependencies (`requirements*.txt`, `setup.cfg`, `setup.py`)
- Anything that could affect correctness or compatibility

### Quick example

```bash
git commit -s -m 'fix typo in README [skip ci]'
```

This commit will be recorded in the repository history but will not
consume CI minutes.

## The code reviewing process

### Reviewing pull requests
Expand Down