This is a generic template that can be used to invoke the execution of a pipeline from another pipeline. You will need to provide your own Personal Access Token in order to authenticate to the API. It is best to store this as a secret variable in a Library Variable Group.

This template is designed to operate at the root level of an Azure Pipeline. It has its own stages declaration. To use this template, add the following two segments to your azure-pipelines.yml:

First add a resource definition for the repository

resources:
  repositories:
  - repository: run-pipeline
    type: github
    name: lifesoccult/azure-devops-run-pipeline

Next add the template reference at the point you want to call another pipeline:

- template: run-pipeline.yml@run-pipeline
  parameters:
    organization: <str> # Name of your ADO Organization
    project: <str> # Name of your ADO Project
    pipeline_id: <int> # Get ID from the web URI
    pipeline_branch: <str> # Optional, defaults to 'main'
    pipeline_variables: <JSON blob> # Optional, defaults to '{}'. See working examples below for good structure
    stages_to_skip: <str[]> # Optional, defaults to '[]' 
    ado_token: <PAT> # It is recommended to use a secret variable for safe keeping

Here is an example of the template declaration fully populated

- template: run-pipeline.yml@run-pipeline
  parameters:
    organization: contoso
    project: ADO
    pipeline_id: 42
    pipeline_branch: develop
    pipeline_variables: "{'environment': {'value': 'dev'}, 'var1': {'value': 'foo'}, 'var2': {'value': 'bar'}}"
    stages_to_skip: "['deploy']"
    ado_token: $(ado_token)

There is a specific format for this argument based on the API documentation. The isSecret key/value pair is optional. It is recommended to condense the JSON blob to a single line.

In my testing, it seems that you cannot override variables that are defined in your pipeline YAML. For best results, I opted to leave out all variable declarations in the target pipeline I wish to trigger, realizing this is not the most optional solution as those variable names are now obfuscated from anyone reading that pipeline code.

These examples are completely dependent on the pipeline you intend to invoke. If you do not need to pass in variables, you can ignore this parameter altogether.

Condensed, sans isSecret key example:

pipeline_variables: "{'environment': {'value': 'dev'}, 'var1': {'value': 'foo'}, 'var2': {'value': 'bar'}}"

Non-condensed example:

pipeline_variables: "{
    'environment': {
        'isSecret': false,
        'value': 'dev'
        },
    'var1': {
        'isSecret': false,
        'value': 'foo'
        },
    'var2': {
        'isSecret': false,
        'value': 'bar'
        }
    }
}"