zenml Add VSCode tutorial pipeline testing to CI

Adds a new CI workflow that tests all tutorial pipelines from the zenml-io/vscode-tutorial-extension repository to ensure ZenML core changes don't break user-facing tutorial examples.

This provides early detection of breaking changes that would affect the tutorial pipelines that users follow when learning ZenML.

View a successful run of these tests here: https://github.com/zenml-io/zenml/actions/runs/15637115894/job/44055030989. (This took just over 2 mins to run end-to-end).

Key Features

Standalone workflow: Can be called from ci-slow or run independently via GitHub Actions UI
Regression testing: Tests ZenML from current branch (not PyPI) for accurate testing
Comprehensive coverage: Runs all 10 tutorial pipelines with proper error handling
Resilient: Includes retry logic for network issues and timeout protection per pipeline
Well documented: Updates both tests/README.md and CLAUDE.md with testing strategy

Implementation Details

New workflow: .github/workflows/vscode-tutorial-pipelines-test.yml
Test script: scripts/test-tutorial-pipelines.sh with validation and reporting
CI integration: Added to ci-slow.yml as vscode-tutorial-pipelines-test job
Environment: Python 3.12 with UV package manager for fast dependency resolution
Error handling: Comprehensive validation of repo structure and meaningful failure reporting

Files Changed

.github/workflows/vscode-tutorial-pipelines-test.yml (new standalone workflow)
scripts/test-tutorial-pipelines.sh (new test execution script)
.github/workflows/ci-slow.yml (added job call)
tests/README.md (updated testing strategy documentation)
CLAUDE.md (updated CI documentation)

Test Plan

[x] YAML syntax validation passes
[x] Formatting with scripts/format.sh passes
[x] Workflow includes proper error handling and resilience features
[x] Script validates tutorial repository structure
[x] Documentation accurately reflects new testing approach

The workflow will be triggered when the run-slow-ci label is applied to PRs, ensuring tutorial pipeline compatibility is verified before merging changes that could break user examples.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Jun 13 '25 14:06 strickvl

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Jun 13 '25 14:06 coderabbitai[bot]

Documentation Link Check Results

✅ Absolute links check passed ✅ Relative links check passed _{Last checked: 2025-07-03 08:58:19 UTC}

Jun 13 '25 14:06 github-actions[bot]

I have a general question about this. How do we version the changes in the tutorials? If something breaks in ZenML, the tutorial will break. Let's say we fix it in the other repo, which will run it out-of-sync with the latest ZenML release for a while until we make the next release. Even when we release, the pipelines will be incompatible with earlier versions of ZenML. Do we have any precautions for it?

The main thing this is trying to ward against is someone making a breaking change in the ZenML core API and not realising that it's also broken the tutorial pipelines.

The way we version changes to the tutorial pipelines is that it has it's own repo and people can make changes / PRs there etc and fix / update to work with the latest versions of ZenML.

I don't think there's a problem with the pipelines being incompatible with earlier versions of ZenML. These tutorial pipelines will only ever be run with the latest release of ZenML. And any changes made to the tutorials repo won't be reflected in the Codespaces environment until someone rebuilds the extension + pushes a new Docker image.

But maybe @safoinme has some thoughts on this as well.

Jun 16 '25 12:06 strickvl

I have a general question about this. How do we version the changes in the tutorials? If something breaks in ZenML, the tutorial will break. Let's say we fix it in the other repo, which will run it out-of-sync with the latest ZenML release for a while until we make the next release. Even when we release, the pipelines will be incompatible with earlier versions of ZenML. Do we have any precautions for it?

The main thing this is trying to ward against is someone making a breaking change in the ZenML core API and not realising that it's also broken the tutorial pipelines.

The way we version changes to the tutorial pipelines is that it has it's own repo and people can make changes / PRs there etc and fix / update to work with the latest versions of ZenML.

I don't think there's a problem with the pipelines being incompatible with earlier versions of ZenML. These tutorial pipelines will only ever be run with the latest release of ZenML. And any changes made to the tutorials repo won't be reflected in the Codespaces environment until someone rebuilds the extension + pushes a new Docker image.

But maybe @safoinme has some thoughts on this as well.

I see your point. However, it will be impossible to ward against someone breaking ZenML. Those types of changes are inevitable. 😄

I guess if the compatibility with the earlier versions is not an issue, and more importantly, any changes made to the tutorials repo isn't reflected until someone rebuilds, this approach should be fine.

Jun 27 '25 06:06 bcdurak