wait-for

name	wait-for
description	Block execution until a condition is met. Use when waiting for pipelines, merge trains, deployments, file creation, or any event that can be checked with a shell command.

Wait For

Poll a shell command until it exits 0 or a timeout is reached. Uses the bash tool's timeout parameter to block agent execution.

Usage

./scripts/wait-for.sh <command> [timeout_seconds] [poll_interval_seconds]

• command — shell command/expression to evaluate (quoted). Succeeds when exit code is 0.
• timeout_seconds — max wait time (default: 300)
• poll_interval_seconds — sleep between attempts (default: 10)

Exit codes: 0 = condition met, 1 = timed out, 2 = usage error.

How to Call

Always set the bash tool's timeout parameter ~30s higher than the script timeout, as a safety net:

bash tool call:
  command: ./scripts/wait-for.sh "<check_command>" <timeout> <interval>
  timeout: <timeout + 30>

Examples

Wait for a pipeline with early failure detection (recommended)

Use the dedicated wait-for-pipeline.sh script. It returns 0 on success and exits immediately with 1 when any required (non-allow_failure) job fails — no need to wait for the full pipeline. It also prints the failed job names and URLs.

Must be run from a git repo directory so glab can resolve :id.

./scripts/wait-for-pipeline.sh [pipeline_id] [timeout_seconds] [poll_interval_seconds]

If pipeline_id is omitted, auto-detects the latest pipeline for the current git branch.

Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = failed, 2 = usage/detection error, 3 = timed out.

# Auto-detect pipeline from current branch (default: 10 min, poll every 30s)
./scripts/wait-for-pipeline.sh

# Explicit pipeline ID
./scripts/wait-for-pipeline.sh 1234567

# Custom timeout and interval
./scripts/wait-for-pipeline.sh 1234567 900 60

How to call from the agent:

bash tool call:
  command: ./scripts/wait-for-pipeline.sh [pipeline_id] <timeout> <interval>
  timeout: <timeout + 30>

Wait for current branch's MR to be merged (10 min, poll every 30s)

Uses current branch name to look up the MR. Run from within the git repo.

./scripts/wait-for.sh "glab mr view \$(git branch --show-current) -F json | jq -e '.state == \"merged\"'" 600 30

Wait for a merge train pipeline (10 min, poll every 60s)

Get the MR iid first: glab mr view $(git branch --show-current) -F json | jq .iid

./scripts/wait-for.sh "glab api 'projects/:id/merge_requests/<mr_iid>/pipelines?per_page=1' | jq -e '.[0].status == \"success\"'" 600 60

Wait for a file to appear

./scripts/wait-for.sh "test -f /tmp/build-done.flag" 120 5

Wait for HTTP endpoint to be healthy

./scripts/wait-for.sh "curl -sf https://example.com/health" 60 5

Tips

• The command's stdout/stderr are suppressed during polling — only the exit code matters.
• Progress is printed to stdout so you can see attempt counts and elapsed time.
• For commands with quotes, use escaped quotes inside the outer quotes or use single-quote wrapping.
• Pick a poll interval proportional to the expected wait: 5s for fast checks, 30-60s for CI pipelines.