Labels are used extensively throughout MonkeyCI to group several kinds of objects for various purposes. The main applications for labels are:

• To allow users to group repositories for displaying.
• To determine which builds have access to which parameters.
• To assign SSH keys when checking out code.

Group Repositories

Over time, the number of repositories that a customer has can become very large. In order to allow for users to be able to have an overview over these repositories, the user interface allows to group them according to their assigned labels. The group by dropdown in the repositories overview screen will display any of the defined labels. If you select one of the labels, the repositories will be grouped according to their values.

Access to Build Parameters

As described in the build parameters page, builds often need some kind of parameterization. In order to determine which builds have access to which parameters, labels are used. The label filter which you can change in the parameter editing screen is used for this purpose. Builds for repositories that match the filter are granted access to the parameters when they retrieve them through the API.

Depending on the kind of filter, builds can see the parameters if all of them match (when an AND is used), or any of them (in case of an OR). You can also combine these.

It is possible to have multiple parameters with the same name configured. This should be avoided however, because in that case the results are undefined. It is advised to declare your labels accordingly to avoid such collisions.

Assign SSH Keys

Sometimes a repository is private, and it can only be checked out if a matching SSH key is provided. In order to be able to build from these repositories, MonkeyCI allows you to configure SSH keys on the customer level. Builds for repositories with the matching labels, similar to build parameters as described above, are assigned those keys when checking out the code.

Defining Labels

Defining and assigning labels to repositories is easy. All you need to do is edit the repository in question, and in the "labels" section add the labels and their values as you see fit. You can use any text as both the label and the value, but we advise to keep them as short and descriptive as possible. After saving the repository, the labels are assigned to it and will be used by MonkeyCI for any of the operations described above.

Note that both labels and values are treated case-sensitive by the application.