The smallest building block of a job in Azure Pipelines, either a task or a script. A job's steps run one after another on a single agent.
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Terms in this definition
- Building Block
A component, possibly reusable, that is put together with others to produce solutions and architectures. Every one is typed and clearly bounded, and it can work together with other building blocks.
- Job
A sequence of steps executed together on one agent or runner, or on the server for agentless work. While running, each occupies one of your parallel jobs.
- Azure Pipelines
CI/CD service within Azure DevOps that deploys applications and infrastructure as code, with environments, approvals and checks.
- Agent
A specialised form of Microsoft Copilot set up for one particular job, pairing instructions with knowledge and skills. You can create one in Copilot Studio, SharePoint or Agent Builder, and administrators control them from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Related terms
- Get metadata
Pipeline step that looks up details about data, such as which files sit in a folder, so subsequent steps can run metadata-driven loads.
- Lakehouse maintenance activity
Preview pipeline step for scheduled upkeep of lakehouse Delta tables, running OPTIMIZE (optionally with V-Order) followed by VACUUM.
- Lookup activity
Use this pipeline step to pull back a file's or table's content, or whatever a query or stored procedure produces, so that subsequent steps can work with it. Results are limited to 5,000 rows or 4 MB.
- Notebook activity
A pipeline step that executes a Fabric notebook. Values are handed over as Base parameters, filled in automatically from the notebook's parameters cell, and a session tag can be set so runs share one Spark session.