perplexity-ci-integration

What this skill does

# Perplexity CI Integration

## Overview

Set up CI/CD pipelines for Perplexity Sonar API integrations. Key CI concerns: live API calls cost money (use mocks for unit tests, reserve live calls for integration tests), API keys must be in GitHub Secrets, and rate limits apply even in CI.

## Prerequisites

- GitHub repository with Actions enabled
- Perplexity API key for CI (separate from production)
- Test suite with mocked and live test separation

## Instructions

### Step 1: Configure GitHub Secret

```bash
set -euo pipefail
# Store API key as a GitHub secret
gh secret set PERPLEXITY_API_KEY --body "pplx-your-ci-key-here"
```

### Step 2: GitHub Actions Workflow

```yaml
# .github/workflows/perplexity-tests.yml
name: Perplexity Integration Tests

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  unit-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: "20"
          cache: "npm"
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test -- --coverage
        # Unit tests use mocked responses — no API key needed

  integration-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: unit-tests
    if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    env:
      PERPLEXITY_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: "20"
          cache: "npm"
      - run: npm ci
      - name: Run live Perplexity integration tests
        run: npm run test:integration
        timeout-minutes: 5
```

### Step 3: Test Structure

```typescript
// tests/perplexity.unit.test.ts — runs on every PR, uses mocks
import { describe, it, expect, vi } from "vitest";
import fixture from "./fixtures/sonar-response.json";

vi.mock("openai", () => ({
  default: vi.fn().mockImplementation(() => ({
    chat: {
      completions: {
        create: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(fixture),
      },
    },
  })),
}));

describe("Perplexity Search (mocked)", () => {
  it("parses citations from response", async () => {
    const { search } = await import("../src/perplexity/search");
    const result = await search("test query");
    expect(result.citations.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
  });

  it("formats answer with citation links", async () => {
    const { formatCitationsAsMarkdown } = await import("../src/perplexity/citations");
    const formatted = formatCitationsAsMarkdown("See [1] for details", ["https://example.com"]);
    expect(formatted).toContain("[1](https://example.com)");
  });
});
```

```typescript
// tests/perplexity.integration.test.ts — runs on main only, uses live API
import { describe, it, expect } from "vitest";

const LIVE = !!process.env.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY;

describe.skipIf(!LIVE)("Perplexity Live API", () => {
  it("sonar returns answer with citations", async () => {
    const { search } = await import("../src/perplexity/search");
    const result = await search("What is TypeScript?", {
      model: "sonar",
      maxTokens: 100,
    });

    expect(result.answer).toBeTruthy();
    expect(result.citations.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
    expect(result.usage.totalTokens).toBeGreaterThan(0);
  }, 15000);

  it("search_domain_filter restricts sources", async () => {
    const { search } = await import("../src/perplexity/search");
    const result = await search("Python latest release", {
      model: "sonar",
      maxTokens: 100,
      searchDomainFilter: ["python.org"],
    });

    expect(result.citations.some((url: string) => url.includes("python.org"))).toBe(true);
  }, 15000);
});
```

### Step 4: Cost-Aware CI

```yaml
# Only run live tests on main branch pushes (not every PR)
# Budget: ~$0.01 per test run (2 sonar queries at $0.005 each)
# Monthly estimate: 30 pushes/month = $0.30

# Add a weekly full integration test
  weekly-integration:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event.schedule == '0 6 * * 1'
    env:
      PERPLEXITY_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: "20"
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:integration:full
        timeout-minutes: 10
```

## Error Handling

| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|-------|-------|----------|
| Secret not found | Missing GitHub secret | Run `gh secret set PERPLEXITY_API_KEY` |
| Integration tests timeout | Complex sonar-pro queries | Use `sonar` with `max_tokens: 100` in CI |
| 429 in CI | Parallel jobs hitting rate limit | Serialize integration tests |
| High CI costs | Running live tests on every PR | Gate live tests on main branch only |

## Output

- Unit test suite with mocked Perplexity responses (runs on every PR)
- Integration test suite with live API (runs on main pushes)
- Cost-optimized CI that limits API calls
- GitHub Actions workflow file

## Resources

- [GitHub Actions Documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/actions)
- [Vitest Documentation](https://vitest.dev/)

## Next Steps

For deployment patterns, see `perplexity-deploy-integration`.