Pipeline Terms Step Node CAUTION Stage A single task; fundamentally steps tell Jenkins  what  to do. For example, to execute the shell command  make  use the  sh  step:  sh 'make' . When a plugin extends the Pipeline DSL, that typically means the plugin has implemented a new  step . Most  work  a Pipeline performs is done in the context of one or more declared  node  steps. Confining the work inside of a node step does two things: Depending on your Jenkins configuration, some workspaces may not get automatically cleaned up after a period of inactivity. See tickets and discussion linked from JENKINS-2111 for more information. stage  is a step for defining a conceptually distinct subset of the entire Pipeline, for example: "Build", "Test", and "Deploy", which is used by many plugins to visualize or present Jenkins Pipeline status/progress. [6: Blue Ocean, Pipeline Stage View plugin] 19 1. Schedules the steps contained within the block to run by adding an item to the Jenkins queue. As soon as an executor is free on a node, the steps will run. 2. Creates a workspace (a directory specific to that particular Pipeline) where work can be done on files checked out from source control.