CLI Reference - Trunk Platform Documentation

Trunk detects and tracks flaky tests in your repos by receiving uploads from your test runs in CI, uploaded from the Trunk Analytics CLI. These uploads happen in the CI jobs used to run tests in your nightly CI, post-commit jobs, and PR checks.

Guides

If you’re setting up Trunk Flaky Tests for the first time, you can follow the guides for your CI provider and test framework.

Guides by Test Frameworks

Guides by CI Provider

The CLI should be downloaded as part of your test workflow in your CI system. You can download the appropriate binary for your platform directly from the GitHub releases page.

Install trunk-analytics-cli from github.com/trunk-io/analytics-cli/releases, not from get.trunk.io or trunk.io/releases. Those URLs install the legacy trunk launcher used by Code Quality, which is in maintenance mode and is not the recommended path for Flaky Tests.

Manual Download

You can find the list of releases on the GitHub release page. We provide executables for Linux and OS X. It’s a single file inside a tar and upon downloading the tar you will find a single binary - trunk-analytics-cli to use.

SKU="trunk-analytics-cli-x86_64-unknown-linux.tar.gz"
curl -fL --retry 3 \
  "https://github.com/trunk-io/analytics-cli/releases/latest/download/${SKU}" \
  | tar -xz

chmod +x trunk-analytics-cli

Organization Slug and Token

The CLI requires your Trunk organization slug and token passed through --org-url-slug and --token to upload results to the correct organization. They can alternatively be set via environment variables, TRUNK_ORG_URL_SLUG and TRUNK_API_TOKEN, respectively. You can find your organization slug and token by going to Settings > Manage > Organization.

Slug
Token

Uploading Test Results

The uploaded tests are processed by Trunk periodically, not in real-time. Wait for at least an hour after the initial upload before they’re displayed in the Uploads tab. Multiple uploads are required before a test can be accurately detected as flaky.

Trunk accepts uploads in three main report formats, XML, Bazel Event Protocol JSONs, and XCode XCResult paths. You can upload each of these test report formats using the ./trunk-analytics-cli upload command like this:

XML
Bazel
XCode

Trunk can accept JUnit XMLs through the --junit-paths argument:

./trunk-analytics-cli upload --junit-paths "test_output.xml" \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN

Trunk can accept Bazel through the --bazel-bep-path argument:

./trunk-analytics-cli upload --bazel-bep-path <BEP_JSON_PATH> \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN

Trunk can accept XCode through the --xcresult-path argument:

./trunk-analytics-cli upload --xcresult-path <XCRESULT_PATH> \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN

Variants

If you run the same tests across different environments or architectures, you can use variants to separate these runs into distinct test cases. This allows Trunk to detect environment-specific flakes. For example, a test for a mobile app might be flaky on iOS but stable on Android. Using variants, Trunk can isolate flakes on the iOS variant instead of marking the test as flaky across all environments. You can specify a variant during upload using the --variant option:

Upload an iOS variant

./trunk-analytics-cli upload --junit-paths "test_output.xml" \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN \
   --variant ios

Variant names are displayed in brackets next to test names in your dashboard:

Running and Quarantining Tests

You can also execute tests and upload results to Trunk in a single step using the test command to wrap your test command. This is especially useful for Quarantining, where the Trunk Analytics CLI will override the exit code of the test command if all failures can be quarantined, preventing flaky tests from failing your builds in CI.

When to use upload vs testUse test when you want Trunk to run your test command directly and set the build exit code based on quarantine status.Use upload when an external runner (or a post-processing step) has already produced JUnit XML and you only need to ship the results. upload will not re-run tests; it ingests the report and sets the exit code based on quarantine status. This is the right command when your test framework’s JUnit reporter can’t be configured for Trunk’s needs and you have to post-process the XML before uploading.

XML
Bazel
XCode

Trunk can accept JUnit XMLs through the --junit-paths argument:

./trunk-analytics-cli test --junit-paths "test_output.xml" \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN \
   <YOUR_TEST_COMMAND>

Trunk can accept Bazel through the --bazel-bep-path argument:

./trunk-analytics-cli test --bazel-bep-path <BEP_JSON_PATH> \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN \
   <YOUR_TEST_COMMAND>

Trunk can accept XCode through the --xcresult-path argument:

./trunk-analytics-cli test --xcresult-path <XCRESULT_PATH> \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN \
   <YOUR_TEST_COMMAND>

Service Availability and Graceful Degradation

Trunk Analytics CLI is designed to fail safe when our quarantine service is unavailable. Read more at Quarantine Service Availability

Upload failure vs test failure

We use the SOFTWARE exit code (70) if the upload fails. If you use the test command and tests fail without the failures being quarantined, we return the provided exit code from the wrapped execution. If you use the upload command, we return exit code FAILURE or the exit code provided with the --test_process_exit_code argument.

Validating reports locally

You can validate the test reports produced by your test frameworks before you set up Trunk in your CI jobs. This is currently only available for XML reports. You can run the validate command like this:

./trunk-analytics-cli validate --junit-paths "test_output.xml"

The validate command will output any problems with your reports so you can address them before setting up Trunk in CI.

Validating the following 1 files:
  File set matching junit.xml:
    junit.xml

junit.xml - 1 test suites, 0 test cases, 0 validation errors

All 1 files are valid! ✅
Navigate to https://app.trunk.io/onboarding?intent=flaky+tests to continue using Trunk Flaky Tests! 🚀🧪

Using custom CI systems

The CLI is preconfigured to work with a set ci-providers but can be used with any CI system by passing #environment-variables to the uploader.

More information on using otherci.md is documented here.

Troubleshooting

"No tests were found" on upload, even though tests ran

This message means the CLI parsed the report inputs and found zero test cases. A few common causes:

The test runner exited before writing JUnit XML. A fatal exception in Playwright, Storybook, or any runner that produces JUnits at the end of the run will leave you with no XML file (or an empty one). Check the CI logs for an error from the runner that happened before the upload step.
Bazel BEP JSON ingestion. Trunk currently parses Bazel BEP more reliably from the binary format than from JSON. If you’re passing --bazel-bep-path with a JSON file produced by --build_event_json_file, switch to the binary BEP:
```
bazel test //... \
  --build_event_binary_file=bep.bin

./trunk-analytics-cli upload --bazel-bep-path bep.bin \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN
```
Globs didn’t match any files. Confirm that --junit-paths resolves to actual .xml files in the working directory the CLI is run from. Wrap globs in quotes so the shell doesn’t expand them before the CLI sees them, and check that the report files contain <testcase> entries — not just <testsuite> shells.

If you’ve checked all three and still see “no tests found,” share a sample JUnit XML and the CI logs with Trunk support so they can look at the specific upload.

403 unauthorized on upload, but the slug and token are correct

The CLI infers the repository URL from the local git remote. If your remote uses an SSH host alias (for example, git@github-most:org/repo.git from a custom ~/.ssh/config entry), the CLI parses the alias as the host and the upload is rejected as not belonging to a recognized GitHub or GitLab repo.Pass --repo-url explicitly with the canonical remote URL:

./trunk-analytics-cli upload --junit-paths "test_output.xml" \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN \
   --repo-url git@github.com:org/repo.git

This bypasses the inferred host and uses the value you pass directly.

"test case name too short" or "classname too short" from validate

These warnings come from the validate command (and the same checks run server-side on upload). They mean a test case has a name or classname so short it’s likely to collide with another test case in your suite — Trunk uses name + classname to identify a test across runs, and very short values increase the chance of false matches.Today, the warning surfaces the offending value but does not name the source file. If you see these:

Grep your JUnit XML for the short value to find the originating test case.
Where possible, configure your test framework to emit fully-qualified classnames (for example, including the file path or package).

We’re tracking better source attribution for these warnings.

Wrapping an external test runner without re-running tests

If your test framework’s JUnit reporter doesn’t expose enough configuration (for example, Cypress’s mocha-junit-reporter doesn’t support filePathPrefix), you may need to post-process the XML before sending it to Trunk. In that case, don’t use test — it will re-run your tests. Use upload instead:

# 1. Run your tests through your existing runner
npm test

# 2. Post-process the JUnit XML however you need to
node scripts/fix-junit-paths.js

# 3. Upload the corrected XML to Trunk
./trunk-analytics-cli upload --junit-paths "test_output.xml" \
   --org-url-slug <TRUNK_ORG_SLUG> \
   --token $TRUNK_API_TOKEN \
   --test-process-exit-code $?

Pass --test-process-exit-code so Trunk knows whether the original test process succeeded or failed; this is what the upload command uses to decide whether to override the exit code based on quarantine status.

Full command reference

The trunk command-line tool can upload and analyze test results. The trunk-analytics-cli command accepts the following subcommands:

Command	Description
`trunk-analytics-cli upload`	Upload data to Trunk Flaky Tests.
`trunk-analytics-cli validate`	Validates if the provided JUnit XML files and prints any errors.
`trunk-analytics-cli test <COMMAND>`	Runs tests using the provided command, uploads results, checks whether the failures are quarantined tests, and correct the exit code based on that.

The upload and test commands accept the following options:

Argument	Description
`--junit-paths <JUNIT_PATHS>`	Path to the test output files. File globs are supported. Remember to wrap globs in `""` quotes
`--bazel-bep-path <BEP_JSON_PATH>`	Path to a JSON serialized Bazel Build Event Protocol. Trunk will use the BEP file to locate test reports. Your test frameworks must still output compatible report formats.
`--xcresult-path <XCRESULT_PATH>`	Path to a `.xcresult` directory, which contains test reports from `xcodebuild`.
`--org-url-slug <ORG_URL_SLUG>`	Trunk Organization slug, from the Settings page.
`--token <TOKEN>`	Trunk Organization (not repo) token, from the Settings page. Defaults to the `TRUNK_API_TOKEN` variable.
`-h, --help`	Additional detailed description of the `upload` command.
`--repo-root`	Path to the repository root. Defaults to the current directory.
`--repo-url <REPO_URL>`	Value to override URL of repository. Optional.
`--repo-head-sha` `<REPO_HEAD_SHA>`	Value to override SHA of repository head. Optional.
`--repo-head-branch <REPO_HEAD_BRANCH>`	Value to override branch of repository head. Optional.
`--repo-head-commit-epoch <REPO_HEAD_COMMIT_EPOCH>`	Value to override commit epoch of repository head. Optional.
`--codeowners-path <CODEOWNERS_PATH>`	Value to override CODEOWNERS file or directory path. Optional.
`--allow-empty-test-results`	Don’t fail commands if test results are empty or missing. Use it when you sometimes skip all tests for certain CI jobs. Defaults to `true`.
`--variant <VARIANT_NAME>`	Upload tests to a specific variant group. Optional.
`--test-process-exit-code` `<EXIT_CODE>`	Specify the exit code of the test previously run. This is used by the upload command to identify errors that happen outside of the context of the test execution (such as build errors).

Memory OverheadRunning tests via trunk-analytics-cli test adds negligible memory overhead.This subcommand is a thin wrapper around your existing test command and doesn’t modify or parallelize test execution.During execution, it:

Runs your provided test command directly.
Records start and end times.
Captures the exit code for quarantine decisions.

You can safely run the CLI even with large or memory-intensive suites, without risking additional OOMs in your CI agents.

Flaky Tests

Documentation Index

​Guides

Guides by Test Frameworks

Guides by CI Provider

​Manual Download

​Organization Slug and Token

​Uploading Test Results

​Variants

​Running and Quarantining Tests

​Service Availability and Graceful Degradation

​Upload failure vs test failure

​Validating reports locally

​Using custom CI systems

​Troubleshooting

​Full command reference

Guides

Manual Download

Organization Slug and Token

Uploading Test Results

Variants

Running and Quarantining Tests

Service Availability and Graceful Degradation

Upload failure vs test failure

Validating reports locally

Using custom CI systems

Troubleshooting

Full command reference