Capabilities

​

What are Capabilities?

Capabilities are workflow automations that TierZero can execute during investigations or conversations. Connect your CI/CD pipelines and let TierZero trigger deployments, rollbacks, and other workflows, with configurable approval gates so you stay in control.

​

Supported Types

• GitHub Actions Workflows: Trigger any workflow in your connected repositories
• Buildkite Pipelines: Trigger any pipeline in your connected Buildkite organization

​

Approval Styles

​

How to Create a Capability

​

Step 1: Start Creation

Navigate to Capabilities in the sidebar and click “Create Capability”.

​

Step 2: Select Type

Choose the capability type: GitHub Actions or Buildkite.

​

Step 3: Configure Target

Select the repository and workflow (GitHub Actions) or pipeline (Buildkite) that this capability will trigger.

​

Step 4: Define Parameters Schema

Define a JSON schema for the inputs this capability accepts. Add descriptions for each parameter so TierZero knows when and how to use them. For example, a rollback capability might accept parameters like service_name, target_version, and environment.

​

Step 5: Set Approval Style

Choose between Manual and Automatic. Start with Manual until you’ve built confidence in the capability’s behavior, then switch to Automatic.

​

Step 6: Activate

Review the configuration and activate the capability.

​

How TierZero Uses Capabilities

During investigations or chat, TierZero can suggest and execute capabilities when relevant. For example:

• Triggering a rollback pipeline after identifying a bad deploy as root cause
• Running a diagnostic workflow to gather additional data during an investigation
• Restarting a service after confirming a fix has been applied

For Manual capabilities, TierZero presents the action and parameters for your approval before executing. For Automatic capabilities, execution happens immediately with a notification.

​

Monitoring Executions

From the Capabilities page, you can track:

• Execution history: Full log of every time the capability was triggered
• Approval rate (30-day): Percentage of Manual executions that were approved
• Status of each run (success, failure, pending approval)
• Parameters passed for each execution

​

Best Practices

1. Start with Manual Approval

• New capabilities should require human approval until you’re confident in when and how TierZero uses them

2. Define Clear Parameter Schemas

• Include descriptions for every parameter, as TierZero uses these to determine when a capability is relevant and what values to pass

3. Monitor the 30-Day Approval Rate

• A high approval rate for Manual capabilities signals readiness to switch to Automatic
• A low rate suggests the trigger conditions or parameters need refinement

4. Use Capabilities for Common Remediation Workflows

• Rollbacks, service restarts, feature flag toggles, and diagnostic data collection are good candidates