Job Trick

A Trick is a job-mode Playground: it starts, runs the watched service(s) to completion, and tears itself down. Use for CI test runs, migrations, scheduled backups, one-shot data jobs.

Required pieces

1. Metadata job flag: x-fibe.gg.metadata.job_mode: true.
2. Watched service: fibe.gg/job_watch: "true" on at least one service. Its exit code decides success/failure.

Optional but recommended:

• x-fibe.gg.metadata.description, category — for clarity.
• Source defaults: metadata.source_defaults: true if the template is imported from a Prop.

Minimum example

services:
  test:
    image: node:22
    working_dir: /app
    labels:
      fibe.gg/repo_url: https://github.com/owner/repo
      fibe.gg/source_mount: /app
      fibe.gg/start_command: npm test
      fibe.gg/job_watch: "true"
      fibe.gg/production: "false"

x-fibe.gg:
  metadata:
    description: "Run npm test against the source repo"
    category: "CI"
    job_mode: true

What runtime does to a job-mode template

• Strips service labels — fibe.gg/* labels are removed from the runtime Compose. The platform has already used them to set up clones/mounts; the inner Compose runs as plain Docker.
• Forces restart: "no" on every service. Restarts would fight job lifecycle.
• Forces deploy.replicas: 1 on every service. Replicas would multiply work.
• Forbids fibe.gg/expose anywhere. Job services aren't user-facing.
• Completes when all watched services exit. Unwatched services (DB, queue) are torn down with the job.
• Fails the run if any watched service exits non-zero.

Watched vs unwatched services

services:
  test:
    labels:
      fibe.gg/job_watch: "true"          # WATCHED — defines pass/fail
  db:
    image: postgres:17                    # unwatched — supports the test
  cache:
    image: redis:8-alpine                 # unwatched — supports the test

The test service runs npm test, exits 0 or non-zero. The job completes; db and cache are torn down.

Multiple watched services: all must exit, all must exit 0, for success. If any fails, the run fails.

Order watched services with depends_on

services:
  test:
    labels:
      fibe.gg/job_watch: "true"
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
      migrate:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
    command: pytest
  migrate:
    image: my-app
    command: bin/rails db:migrate
    restart: "no"
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
  db:
    image: postgres:17
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 5s

The migrate service is not watched — it's a setup step. Only test defines success.

Job ENV entries

Job-mode templates can pull launcher-level env vars from Job ENV entries (Player-scoped or Prop-scoped). They're injected at run time:

• Manage via fibe_resource_mutate(resource: "job_env", operation: "create"|"update").
• Global Job ENV applies to every Player job.
• Prop-scoped Job ENV applies only when the job uses that Prop.

This is the right home for CI credentials (NPM_TOKEN, STRIPE_SECRET_KEY) — values not in the template but injected per Player/Prop scope.

When NOT to use job mode

• Long-running HTTP services. Use long-running templates.
• Scheduled HTTP work — use a long-running service that does work internally. Job mode means "exit when done".
• Services that need exposed ports. Job mode forbids fibe.gg/expose.

Triggering a Trick

• Manually: fibe_resource_mutate(resource: "trick", operation: "trigger", payload: {...}).
• Re-run last: fibe_resource_mutate(resource: "trick", operation: "rerun", payload: { trick_id: ... }).
• Scheduled: combine with metadata.schedule_config (mode-schedule-cron).
• VCS-triggered: combine with metadata.trigger_config (mode-trigger-vcs).

Validation

Specifically validate with target_type: "trick":

fibe_schema(
  resource: "compose",
  operation: "validate",
  payload: {
    "compose_yaml": "...",
    "target_type": "trick",
    "job_mode": true
  }
)

Common patterns

Test runner (see playbook-test-runner)

services:
  test:
    image: node:22
    working_dir: /app
    labels:
      fibe.gg/repo_url: ...
      fibe.gg/source_mount: /app
      fibe.gg/start_command: npm ci && npm test
      fibe.gg/job_watch: "true"

Database migration

services:
  migrate:
    image: my-app:latest
    command: bin/rails db:migrate
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: "..."
    labels:
      fibe.gg/job_watch: "true"

(Static image; no fibe.gg/repo_url needed if you build the image elsewhere and just pin a tag.)

Backup job

services:
  backup:
    image: postgres:17
    environment:
      PGHOST: db.prod.internal
      PGUSER: backup_role
      PGPASSWORD: $$var__BACKUP_PASS
    command: >
      pg_dump --no-owner | gzip | aws s3 cp - s3://my-backups/db.gz
    labels:
      fibe.gg/job_watch: "true"

Pitfalls

• Forgetting both job_mode: true AND job_watch — only one of them: runtime behavior is undefined / falls back to long-running.
• Watched service that doesn't exit (e.g. starts a dev server) — job never finishes. Watched services MUST exit.
• Setting fibe.gg/expose on a job service — runtime rejects.
• container_name:, ports:, restart: always — silently overridden, but misleading. Remove for clarity.
• No setup/migrate waiting — if the test service runs before migrations finish, you get false-fail. Use depends_on: service_completed_successfully.

Related skills

decide-job-mode, mode-schedule-cron, mode-trigger-vcs, recipe-depends-on, playbook-test-runner, playbook-cron-scheduled.