Bitbucket "custom:" Pipeline Cannot Be Triggered Manually

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

Custom pipelines under pipelines: custom: are the ones you trigger manually (or by schedule). If the named pipeline is missing, its required variables are not provided, or you lack run permission, the manual run does not work.

What this error means

A custom pipeline does not appear in the "Run pipeline" list, or it starts and immediately fails because a declared variable was not supplied. The manual trigger has nothing valid to run.

Run pipeline → no custom pipeline named "migrate" available.
# or, after triggering:
Configuration error: required variable "TARGET_DB" was not provided.

Common causes

Custom pipeline not defined

Manual pipelines live under pipelines: custom:. A name that is not defined there does not appear in the Run pipeline menu.

Declared variables not supplied at run time

A custom pipeline can declare variables: the operator must fill in. Omitting a required one fails the run before it does work.

How to fix it

Define the custom pipeline with its variables

Add the named pipeline under custom: and declare the inputs it needs.

pipelines:
  custom:
    migrate:
      - variables:
          - name: TARGET_DB
      - step:
          script: [ ./migrate.sh "$TARGET_DB" ]

Trigger it with the required inputs

1. Open Pipelines → Run pipeline and pick the custom pipeline by name.
2. Fill in every declared variable before running.
3. Confirm you have permission to run pipelines on the repository.

How to prevent it

• Define every manually triggered pipeline under custom:.
• Declare and document the variables each custom pipeline needs.
• Grant run permission to the people expected to trigger it.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation