To integrate a Cloud Build pipeline with a third-party monitoring platform, what is the recommended approach to send build information?

Using a Cloud Pub/Sub push subscription to the Cloud Build cloud-builds Pub/Sub topic is the recommended approach because it facilitates an efficient and scalable method for sending build information to a third-party monitoring platform. This method takes advantage of the Pub/Sub messaging pattern, which is designed for asynchronous communication and allows for decoupling between the Cloud Build service and the monitoring platform.

When builds are initiated in Cloud Build, events are published to the cloud-builds Pub/Sub topic. By creating a push subscription, you can automatically forward these build events directly to the specified endpoint of your monitoring platform as they occur, ensuring real-time updates without needing to add custom logic to individual build steps. This not only simplifies the integration but also improves maintainability and reduces the risk of errors since the logic is centralized in a dedicated component rather than being scattered throughout the build steps.

Other methods, such as adding logic to each build step to POST information or introducing a new step at the end of the pipeline, can be cumbersome and harder to manage. They may lead to redundancy and require additional error handling and monitoring, increasing complexity. Although using Cloud Logging to create a logs-based metric with an Alert and Webhook may provide another way to integrate, it typically involves additional steps and potential latency