Modern web development at companies with real products almost always involves a large monorepo with a set of CI – Continuous Integration – tests to maintain code quality and make sure your PR hasn't broken something. Even the leanest test suites I've seen take at least 10 minutes to run on most PRs. This means that between the time when you feel "done" with your task, and before you can merge the changes, and ideally before you request that someone review your work, you have this 10 minutes of waiting. I often use this to "self-review" my work, turning a critical eye on what I'm asking someone else to evaluate, but sometimes I'm happy with the work, and some tiny linting thing fails, and CI has to begin again.
So I wander off, ideally to start on my next task, but often to get coffee or, let's be honest, to more unsavory places of the Internet in another tab.
The biggest bottleneck in my workflow is remembering to check if my CI passed.
Sometimes I'll come back to a PR and CI will have passed or failed 30 minutes earlier, but I hadn't noticed because I wasn't watching it constantly.
There's gotta be a better way!
💡 I want a browser extension (or first party implementation @github) that puts a "Notify me when CI finishes" checkbox on my PRs, and then sends an OS-level notification. v2 would buzz my Apple watch if I get up from my desk to stretch.
– @erikras, Aug 19, 2021
I've been wanting a PR notiication for almost five years!
So I built one. It's called CI Ding. It does one thing: it plays a happy sound when CI passes in an open, but backgrounded, tab, and it plays a sad sound if it fails.
10-15 minute breaks between projects are healthy and promote focus and flow, but it's important to remember to stop your break.
Let me know what you guys think. Download now while supplies last! It's free for your first 10 notifications.