Real-World Incrementalist Examples

May 12, 2025 · View on GitHub

This page contains some links to public repositories where Incrementalist is being used successfully in the wild.

Akka.NET

The Akka.NET project was the original use case that inspired the creation of Incrementalist:

Example: "Run Only .NET Framework Tests"

incrementalist call: https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/blob/c6a3068c137591039fbcc42f30332e4bc6d75d13/build-system/pr-validation.yaml#L62
configuration file: https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/blob/c6a3068c137591039fbcc42f30332e4bc6d75d13/.incrementalist/testsOnly.json#L1-L18

Example: "Run Only Multi-Node Tests"

incrementalist call: https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/blob/c6a3068c137591039fbcc42f30332e4bc6d75d13/build-system/pr-validation.yaml#L101
configuration file: https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/blob/c6a3068c137591039fbcc42f30332e4bc6d75d13/.incrementalist/mutliNodeOnly.json#L1-L13

Akka.Management is another large project in the Akka.NET ecosystem, used for performing cluster service discovery and adding support for distributed locks backed by specific cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Kubernetes.

Example: "Skip `TestContainer` Projects on Windows Build Agents"

This file is used to avoid executing test projects that rely on Azurite TestContainer support, since Windows build agents can't run those Docker images.

Example: "Run All Tests"

Akka.Management uses this configuration on Linux agents, where the full test suite can be run without platform compatibility issues.

incrementalist call: https://github.com/akkadotnet/Akka.Management/blob/ec6234341c59bb1760a807685021931b6a2469d1/build-system/azure-pipeline.template.yaml#L38-L40
configuration file: https://github.com/akkadotnet/Akka.Management/blob/ec6234341c59bb1760a807685021931b6a2469d1/.incrementalist/incrementalist.json#L1-L12 - essentially a default configuration file.

Using the `run-process` Verb

The run-process verb is a discoverable alias for the run verb that currently only supports dotnet commands. It was introduced to improve CLI discoverability for future support of non-dotnet commands.

Example: "Run dotnet test with run-process"

# This is equivalent to: incrementalist run -b dev -- test -c Release
incrementalist run-process --process dotnet -b dev -- test -c Release

Currently, the --process parameter must be set to dotnet, but the verb provides a more discoverable interface for future enhancements.