CI/CD Pipeline - Automating Build, Test, and Deployment

Package Manager Detection

IMPORTANT: Before creating CI/CD configurations, detect the project's package manager by checking for lockfiles and adapt all commands accordingly.

Detection Order (first match wins):

1. bun.lockb

   → Use bun

2. pnpm-lock.yaml

   → Use pnpm

3. yarn.lock

   → Use yarn

4. package-lock.json

   → Use npm

Command Mapping - Adapt examples in this skill to use the detected package manager:

npm ci

yarn install --frozen-lockfile

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

bun install --frozen-lockfile

npm run <script>

yarn <script>

pnpm <script>

bun run <script>

npx <cmd>

yarn dlx <cmd>

pnpm dlx <cmd>

bunx <cmd>

package-lock.json

yarn.lock

pnpm-lock.yaml

bun.lockb

~/.npm

~/.yarn/cache

~/.pnpm-store

~/.bun/install/cache

Note: The examples below use npm by default. When implementing, replace with the appropriate commands for your detected package manager.

When to use this skill

• Setting up GitHub Actions or GitLab CI workflows
• Automating test execution on every commit
• Implementing automated builds and deployments
• Creating release and versioning workflows
• Managing staging and production deployments
• Configuring build caching for faster pipelines
• Implementing blue-green or canary deployments
• Setting up automatic rollback on failures
• Running linting and type checking in CI
• Automating database migrations in pipelines
• Implementing security scanning in CI
• Creating deployment approval workflows

When to use this skill

• Setting up continuous integration, automating deployments, configuring build pipelines, or implementing DevOps workflows.
• When working on related tasks or features
• During development that requires this expertise

Use when: Setting up continuous integration, automating deployments, configuring build pipelines, or implementing DevOps workflows.

Core Principles

1. Automate Everything - Manual steps are error-prone
2. Fail Fast - Catch issues early in the pipeline
3. Test Before Deploy - Never deploy untested code
4. Reproducible Builds - Same inputs = same outputs
5. Zero-Downtime Deployments - Users never affected

GitHub Actions

1. Basic CI Workflow

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI

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

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      
      - name: Run linter
        run: npm run lint
      
      - name: Run type check
        run: npm run typecheck
      
      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test -- --coverage
      
      - name: Upload coverage
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
        with:
          files: ./coverage/lcov.info

2. Matrix Testing

# Test across multiple versions
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
        node-version: [18, 20, 21]
    
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Setup Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
      
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

3. Deploy Workflow

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      
      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        uses: amondnet/vercel-action@v25
        with:
          vercel-token: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
          vercel-org-id: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
          vercel-project-id: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
          vercel-args: '--prod'

4. Docker Build & Push

name: Docker

on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
      
      - name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}
      
      - name: Extract metadata
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: myorg/myapp
          tags: |
            type=semver,pattern={{version}}
            type=semver,pattern={{major}}.{{minor}}
      
      - name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          cache-from: type=registry,ref=myorg/myapp:buildcache
          cache-to: type=registry,ref=myorg/myapp:buildcache,mode=max

5. E2E Testing

name: E2E Tests

on:
  pull_request:

jobs:
  e2e:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:15
        env:
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
        options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5
    
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      
      - run: npm ci
      
      - name: Install Playwright
        run: npx playwright install --with-deps
      
      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: npm run test:e2e
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/test
      
      - name: Upload test results
        if: always()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: playwright-report
          path: playwright-report/

GitLab CI

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - lint
  - test
  - build
  - deploy

variables:
  NODE_VERSION: "20"

lint:
  stage: lint
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run lint
    - npm run typecheck

test:
  stage: test
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  services:
    - postgres:15
  variables:
    POSTGRES_DB: test
    POSTGRES_USER: postgres
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm test -- --coverage
  coverage: '/All files[^|]*\|[^|]*\s+([\d\.]+)/'
  artifacts:
    reports:
      coverage_report:
        coverage_format: cobertura
        path: coverage/cobertura-coverage.xml

build:
  stage: build
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/

deploy:production:
  stage: deploy
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  script:
    - npm install -g vercel
    - vercel --prod --token=$VERCEL_TOKEN
  only:
    - main

Deployment Strategies

1. Blue-Green Deployment

# Deploy to staging slot first
- name: Deploy to staging
  run: |
    az webapp deployment slot create \
      --name myapp \
      --resource-group mygroup \
      --slot staging
    
    az webapp deployment source config-zip \
      --name myapp \
      --resource-group mygroup \
      --slot staging \
      --src ./dist.zip

# Run smoke tests against staging
- name: Smoke tests
  run: npm run test:smoke -- --url=https://myapp-staging.azurewebsites.net

# Swap staging to production (instant cutover)
- name: Swap to production
  run: |
    az webapp deployment slot swap \
      --name myapp \
      --resource-group mygroup \
      --slot staging \
      --target-slot production

2. Canary Deployment

# Deploy to 10% of servers first
- name: Deploy canary
  run: |
    kubectl set image deployment/myapp \
      myapp=myapp:${{ github.sha }} \
      --record
    
    kubectl patch deployment myapp \
      -p '{"spec":{"replicas":1}}'

# Monitor for 10 minutes
- name: Monitor canary
  run: |
    sleep 600
    ERROR_RATE=$(kubectl logs -l app=myapp --tail=1000 | grep ERROR | wc -l)
    if [ $ERROR_RATE -gt 10 ]; then
      echo "High error rate, rolling back"
      kubectl rollout undo deployment/myapp
      exit 1
    fi

# Scale to 100% if healthy
- name: Full deployment
  run: kubectl scale deployment myapp --replicas=5

3. Rolling Deployment

# Kubernetes rolling update (zero downtime)
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  replicas: 5
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 1        # Max 1 extra pod during update
      maxUnavailable: 1  # Max 1 pod down at a time
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: myapp
        image: myapp:latest
        readinessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /health
            port: 3000
          initialDelaySeconds: 5
          periodSeconds: 5

Pipeline Best Practices

1. Caching

# Cache dependencies
- name: Cache node modules
  uses: actions/cache@v3
  with:
    path: ~/.npm
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
    restore-keys: |
      ${{ runner.os }}-node-

# Cache build outputs
- name: Cache build
  uses: actions/cache@v3
  with:
    path: .next/cache
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-nextjs-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}

2. Secrets Management

# ✅ Store secrets in CI/CD platform
jobs:
  deploy:
    steps:
      - name: Deploy
        env:
          API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}
          DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}
        run: |
          echo "API_KEY is set: ${API_KEY:+yes}"
          npm run deploy

# ✅ Use vault for sensitive data
- name: Import secrets
  uses: hashicorp/vault-action@v2
  with:
    url: https://vault.example.com
    token: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}
    secrets: |
      secret/data/prod api_key | API_KEY ;
      secret/data/prod db_url | DATABASE_URL

3. Quality Gates

jobs:
  quality-check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Run tests with coverage
        run: npm test -- --coverage
      
      - name: Check coverage threshold
        run: |
          COVERAGE=$(cat coverage/coverage-summary.json | jq '.total.lines.pct')
          if (( $(echo "$COVERAGE < 80" | bc -l) )); then
            echo "Coverage $COVERAGE% is below 80%"
            exit 1
          fi
      
      - name: SonarQube Scan
        uses: sonarsource/sonarcloud-github-action@master
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
      
      - name: Check quality gate
        run: |
          STATUS=$(curl -u $SONAR_TOKEN: \
            "https://sonarcloud.io/api/qualitygates/project_status?projectKey=myproject" \
            | jq -r '.projectStatus.status')
          
          if [ "$STATUS" != "OK" ]; then
            echo "Quality gate failed"
            exit 1
          fi

4. Notifications

jobs:
  notify:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: always()
    needs: [test, build, deploy]
    steps:
      - name: Slack notification
        uses: 8398a7/action-slack@v3
        with:
          status: ${{ job.status }}
          text: 'Deployment ${{ job.status }}'
          webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}
      
      - name: Email notification
        if: failure()
        uses: dawidd6/action-send-mail@v3
        with:
          server_address: smtp.gmail.com
          server_port: 465
          username: ${{ secrets.MAIL_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.MAIL_PASSWORD }}
          subject: 'CI/CD Failed: ${{ github.workflow }}'
          body: 'Build failed on ${{ github.ref }}'
          to: team@example.com

CI/CD Checklist

Build Pipeline:
□ Automated on every commit
□ Runs linting and type checking
□ Executes all tests
□ Generates code coverage reports
□ Builds production artifacts
□ Caches dependencies for speed

Quality Gates:
□ Minimum code coverage threshold (e.g., 80%)
□ No critical vulnerabilities (npm audit, Snyk)
□ Code quality checks (SonarQube)
□ No linting errors
□ All tests passing

Deployment:
□ Automated deployment to staging
□ Manual approval for production
□ Health checks before traffic switch
□ Rollback capability
□ Zero-downtime strategy (blue-green, canary, rolling)

Security:
□ Secrets stored securely (not in code)
□ Dependency scanning (Dependabot)
□ Container vulnerability scanning
□ SAST/DAST security scans
□ Signed commits required

Monitoring:
□ Build status notifications (Slack, email)
□ Deployment notifications
□ Error rate monitoring post-deploy
□ Automatic rollback on errors
□ Audit logs maintained

Resources

• GitHub Actions Documentation
• GitLab CI/CD
• The DevOps Handbook

Remember: Great CI/CD pipelines are fast, reliable, and give developers confidence to deploy frequently.