Monitor Your CI/CD Pipelines from Your Home Screen

The CI/CD Monitoring Problem

You push a commit and start a build. Now what? You probably do one of these:

• Keep the GitHub Actions tab open and refresh every few minutes
• Context switch to other work, then forget to check back
• Set up Slack notifications that create notification fatigue
• Wait anxiously, unable to focus on other tasks

There's a better way. WidgetDev Pro brings your CI/CD pipeline status directly to your device's home screen with real-time updates.

What You'll Learn

In this tutorial, you'll set up:

• Build status widgets for GitHub Actions and GitLab CI
• Test coverage tracking with visual indicators
• Deployment pipeline monitoring across environments
• Custom alerts for critical build failures

Prerequisites

• WidgetDev Pro subscription (starts at $2.99/month)
• A repository with existing CI/CD pipelines
• 5 minutes to set up your first pipeline widget

Step 1: Enable Pipeline Monitoring

First, open WidgetDev and navigate to Settings. Under Connected Accounts, find your GitHub or GitLab connection.

Tap Manage Permissions and ensure that:

• Read repository actions is enabled (GitHub)
• Read CI/CD is enabled (GitLab)

These permissions allow WidgetDev to monitor your pipeline status without giving write access to your repositories.

Step 2: Add a Build Status Widget

Add a new widget to your home screen (see our Getting Started guide if you need help).

Choose the Build Status widget type. You'll be prompted to select:

• Repository: Which repo to monitor
• Branch: Usually main or develop
• Workflow: Which CI workflow to track (GitHub Actions) or job name (GitLab CI)

The widget will show:

• Green checkmark: Build passed
• Red X: Build failed
• Yellow spinner: Build in progress
• Gray dash: No recent builds

Step 3: Monitor Multiple Pipelines

Most projects have multiple stages: build, test, deploy. Create a widget for each critical stage.

Pro tip: Use the Pipeline Dashboard widget (available in Medium and Large sizes) to monitor all stages in a single widget:

• Build: 2m 34s - Passed
• Test: 8m 12s - Passed
• Deploy (Staging): 3m 45s - In Progress
• Deploy (Production): 4m 02s - Passed

Step 4: Add Code Coverage Tracking

If your CI/CD pipeline generates code coverage reports, WidgetDev can display them beautifully.

Add a Coverage widget and configure it to read coverage from:

• Codecov (automatic integration with API key)
• Coveralls (automatic integration with API key)
• Custom coverage badges (provide badge URL)
• CI artifacts (parse coverage.json from GitHub Actions or GitLab CI)

The widget shows your current coverage percentage with a visual indicator:

• Green: 80%+ coverage
• Yellow: 60-79% coverage
• Red: Below 60% coverage

Step 5: Set Up Smart Notifications

WidgetDev Pro includes real-time updates, but you don't want to be notified about every successful build. Configure smart notifications:

Go to Settings → Notifications and choose:

• All builds: Get notified for every pipeline completion
• Failures only: Only notify when builds fail (recommended)
• Branch-specific: Only notify for main/production branches
• Custom rules: Advanced filtering based on workflow names, authors, etc.

Advanced: Multi-Repository Monitoring

Working on microservices or managing multiple projects? Create a Multi-Repository Dashboard widget (available on tablets and desktops).

This widget shows:

• Up to 12 repositories in a grid layout
• Color-coded status indicators for each repo
• Last build time and duration
• Tap any repository to drill down into details

Conclusion

With WidgetDev Pro, you'll never miss a failed build or waste time refreshing CI/CD dashboards. Your pipeline status is always visible at a glance, letting you focus on writing code instead of monitoring builds.

Try it free for 7 days and see the difference. Your productivity will thank you.