--- a/taskcluster/docs/action-spec.rst
+++ b/taskcluster/docs/action-spec.rst
@@ -19,60 +19,113 @@ This has two purposes:
1. Facilitate development of utility actions/tools in-tree, and,
2. Strongly decouple build/test configuration from Treeherder.
For details on how define custom actions in-tree, refer to
:doc:`the in-tree actions section <action-details>`. This document merely
specifies how ``actions.json`` shall be interpreted.
+Actions
+-------
-Specification of Actions
-------------------------
-The *decision task* creates an artifact ``public/actions.json`` which contains
-a list of actions to be presented in the user-interface.
+The content of ``actions.json`` is a list of actions (and variables, to be
+described later). Each action has a ``kind`` describing how a user interface
+should trigger it. There is currently only one kind defined: ``task``.
+
+An action with ``kind: 'task'`` specifies a task that the user interface should
+create. That is, when the action is triggered, the user interface calls the
+Taskcluster API to create a new task, with the content of that task determined
+from ``actions.json``.
+The task created by the action may be useful in its own right (for example,
+running a test with additional debugging), or it may simplify trigger in-tree
+scripts that create new tasks. The latter form is called an *action task*, and
+is similar to a decision task. This allows in-tree scripts to execute
+complicated actions such as backfilling.
+
+Actions of the ``'task'`` *kind* **must** have a ``task`` property. This
+property specifies the task template to be parameterized and created in order
+to trigger the action.
+
+The template is parameterized using `JSON-e
+<https://github.com/taskcluster/json-e>`_, with the following context entries
+available:
-Variables
----------
-The ``public/actions.json`` artifact has a ``variables`` property that is a
-mapping from variable names to JSON values to be used as constants.
-These variables can be referenced from task templates, but beware that they
-may overshadow builtin variables. This is mainly useful to deduplicate commonly
-used values, in order to reduce template size. This feature does not
-introduce further expressiveness.
+``taskGroupId``
+ the ``taskGroupId`` of task-group this is triggerd from,
+``taskId``
+ the ``taskId`` of the selected task, ``null`` if no task is
+ selected (this is the case if the action has ``context: []``),
+``task``
+ the task definition of the selected task, ``null`` if no task is
+ selected (this is the case if the action has ``context: []``), and,
+``input``
+ the input matching the ``schema`` property, ``null`` if the action
+ doesn't have a ``schema`` property. See "Action Input" below.
+``<key>``
+ Any ``<key>`` defined in the ``variables`` property may also be referenced.
+ See "Variables" below.
+
+The following **example** demonstrates how a task template can specify
+timestamps and dump input JSON into environment variables::
+
+ {
+ "version": 1,
+ "actions": [
+ {
+ "kind": "task",
+ "title: "Do A Thing",
+ "description": "Do something",
+ "task": {
+ "workerType": "my-worker",
+ "payload": {
+ "created": {"$fromNow": ""},
+ "deadline": {"$fromNow": "1 hour 15 minutes"},
+ "expiration": {"$fromNow": "14 days"},
+ "image": "my-docker-image",
+ "env": {
+ "TASKID_TRIGGERED_FOR": "${taskId}",
+ "INPUT_JSON": {"$json": {"$eval": "input"}}
+ },
+ ...
+ },
+ ...
+ }
+ }
+ ],
+ "variables: {},
+ }
MetaData
---------
-Each action entry must define a ``title``, ``description`` and ``kind``,
-furthermore, the list of actions should be sorted by the order in which actions
-should appear in a menu.
+........
+
+Each action entry must define a ``title`` and ``description``. furthermore,
+the list of actions should be sorted by the order in which actions should
+appear in a menu.
The ``title`` is a human readable string intended to be used as label on the
button, link or menu entry that triggers the action. This should be short and
-concise, ideally you'll want to avoid duplicates.
+concise. Ideally, you'll want to avoid duplicates.
The ``description`` property contains a human readable string describing the
action, such as what it does, how it does it, what it is useful for. This string
is to be render as **markdown**, allowing for bullet points, links and other
simple formatting to explain what the action does.
-The ``kind`` property specifies what kind of action the entry defines.
-At present only one kind of action is supported, the ``task`` kind.
-See section on *Action Kind: ``task``* below for details.
-
Action Context
---------------
+..............
+
Few actions are relevant in all contexts. For this reason each action specifies
a ``context`` property. This property specifies when an action is relevant.
Actions *relevant* for a task should be displayed in a context menu for the
-given task. Similarly actions *not relevant* for a given task, should not be
-display in the context menu for the given task.
+given task. Similarly actions *not relevant* for a given task should not be
+displayed in the context menu for the given task.
As a special case we say that actions for which *no relevant* contexts can
exist, are *relevant* for the task-group. This could for example be an action
to create tasks that was optimized away.
The ``context`` property is specified as a list of *tag-sets*. A *tag-set* is a
set of key-value pairs. A task is said to *match* a *tag-set* if ``task.tags``
is a super-set of the *tag-set*. An action is said to be *relevant* for a given
@@ -106,20 +159,49 @@ task-group.
Action5 = {..., context: [{}]}
// Action5 is relevant to: TaskA, TaskB, TaskC (all tasks in fact)
Action6 = {..., context: []}
// Action6 is relevant to the task-group
Action Input
-------------
+............
+
An action can take JSON input, the input format accepted by an action is
specified using a `JSON schema <http://json-schema.org/>`_. This schema is
-specified with by the action's ``schema`` property.
+specified with by the action's ``schema`` property. For example::
+
+ {
+ "version": 1,
+ "actions": [
+ {
+ "kind": "task",
+ "title: "Do A Thing",
+ "description": "Do something",
+ "schema": {
+ "description": "The thing to do",
+ "title": "Thing",
+ "default": "something",
+ "type": "string"
+ "maxLength": 255
+ },
+ "task": {
+ "payload": {
+ "env": {
+ "INPUT_JSON": {"$json": {"$eval": "input"}}
+ },
+ ...
+ },
+ ...
+ }
+ }
+ ],
+ "variables: {},
+ }
User interfaces for triggering actions, like Treeherder, are expected to provide
JSON input that satisfies this schema. These interfaces are also expected to
validate the input against the schema before attempting to trigger the action.
It is expected that such user interfaces will attempt to auto-generate HTML
forms from JSON schema specified. However, a user-interface implementor may also
decide to hand write an HTML form for a particularly common or complex JSON
@@ -137,67 +219,25 @@ In fact, user interface implementors sho
for which they have hand written input forms, so that action developers can
use these when applicable.
When writing schemas it is strongly encouraged that the JSON schema
``description`` properties are used to provide detailed descriptions. It is
assumed that consumers will render these ``description`` properties as markdown.
-Action Kind: ``task``
----------------------
-
-An action with ``kind: 'task'`` is backed by an action task. That is, when the
-action is triggered by the user, the usre interface creates a new task,
-referred to as an *action task*. The task created by the action may be useful
-in its own right, or it may simplify trigger in-tree scripts that create new
-tasks, similar to a decision task. This way in-tree scripts can be triggered to
-execute complicated actions such as backfilling.
-
-Actions of the ``'task'`` *kind* **must** have a ``task`` property. This
-property specifies the task template to be parameterized and created in order
-to trigger the action.
-
-The template is parameterized with the following variables:
+Variables
+---------
-``taskGroupId``
- the ``taskGroupId`` of task-group this is triggerd from,
-``taskId``
- the ``taskId`` of the selected task, ``null`` if no task is
- selected (this is the case if the action has ``context: []``),
-``task``
- the task definition of the selected task, ``null`` if no task is
- selected (this is the case if the action has ``context: []``), and,
-``input``
- the input matching the ``schema`` property, ``null`` if the action
- doesn't have a ``schema`` property.
-``<key>``
- Any ``<key>`` defined in the ``variables`` property may also be referenced.
-
-The template is an object that is parameterized using `JSON-e
-<https://github.com/taskcluster/json-e>`_, with the above variables supplied as
-context.
-
-The following **example** demonstrates how a task template can specify
-timestamps and dump input JSON into environment variables::
-
- {
- "workerType": "my-worker",
- "payload": {
- "created": {"$fromNow": ""},
- "deadline": {"$fromNow": "1 hour 15 minutes"},
- "expiration": {"$fromNow": "14 days"},
- "image": "my-docker-image",
- "env": {
- "TASKID_TRIGGERED_FOR": "${taskId}",
- "INPUT_JSON": {"$json": {"$eval": "input"}}
- },
- ...
- },
- ...
- }
-
+The ``public/actions.json`` artifact has a ``variables`` property that is a
+mapping from variable names to JSON values to be used as constants.
+These variables can be referenced from task templates, but beware that they
+may overshadow builtin variables. This is mainly useful to deduplicate commonly
+used values, in order to reduce template size. This feature does not
+introduce further expressiveness.
Formal Specification
--------------------
+The following is the JSON schema for ``actions.json``.
+
.. literalinclude:: actions-schema.yml
:language: YAML