---

name: ci-cd description: CI/CD pipeline standards for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and deployment automation. Covers testing gates, security scanning, artifact management, and deployment strategies for reliable software delivery.

CI/CD DevOps Standards

Quick Navigation: Level 1: Quick Start (5 min) → Level 2: Implementation (30 min) → Level 3: Mastery (Extended)

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Level 1: Quick Start (<2,000 tokens, 5 minutes)

Core Principles

1. Automate Everything: Build, test, security scan, and deploy automatically
2. Fail Fast: Detect issues early with comprehensive testing gates
3. Security First: Scan dependencies, containers, and code for vulnerabilities
4. Reproducible Builds: Same code → same artifact every time
5. Rapid Rollback: Deploy with confidence, roll back quickly if needed

Essential Checklist

• Continuous Integration: Automated builds and tests on every commit
• Testing Gates: Unit tests pass (>80% coverage), integration tests pass
• Security Scanning: Dependency vulnerabilities checked, SAST enabled
• Artifact Management: Built artifacts stored with version tags
• Deployment Automation: One-click deploy to staging/production
• Rollback Strategy: Automated rollback on deployment failure
• Monitoring: Pipeline metrics, build success rates tracked
• Secrets Management: No hardcoded secrets, use vault/parameter store

Quick Example (GitHub Actions)

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

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: '18'
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Run linters
        run: npm run lint

      - name: Run tests
        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% threshold"
            exit 1
          fi

  security:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run security audit
        run: npm audit --audit-level=high

      - name: SAST scan
        uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2

  build:
    needs: [test, security]
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Build Docker image
        run: docker build -t myapp:${{ github.sha }} .

      - name: Scan container
        uses: aquasecurity/trivy-action@master
        with:
          image-ref: 'myapp:${{ github.sha }}'
          severity: 'CRITICAL,HIGH'
          exit-code: '1'

      - name: Push to registry
        run: |
          echo "${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}" | docker login -u "${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}" --password-stdin
          docker tag myapp:${{ github.sha }} registry.example.com/myapp:${{ github.sha }}
          docker push registry.example.com/myapp:${{ github.sha }}

Quick Links to Level 2

• GitHub Actions Workflows
• GitLab CI Configuration
• Testing Gates
• Security Scanning
• Artifact Management
• Deployment Strategies
• Environment Management

---

Level 2: Implementation (<5,000 tokens, 30 minutes)

GitHub Actions Workflows

Multi-Stage Pipeline

# .github/workflows/cd.yml
name: CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

env:
  REGISTRY: ghcr.io
  IMAGE_NAME: ${{ github.repository }}

jobs:
  deploy-staging:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: staging
      url: https://staging.example.com
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Deploy to staging
        run: |
          kubectl set image deployment/myapp \
            myapp=${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}:${{ github.sha }} \
            --namespace=staging

      - name: Wait for rollout
        run: kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n staging --timeout=5m

      - name: Run smoke tests
        run: |
          curl -f https://staging.example.com/health || exit 1

  deploy-production:
    needs: deploy-staging
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: production
      url: https://example.com
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Blue-green deployment
        run: |
          # Deploy to green environment
          kubectl set image deployment/myapp-green \
            myapp=${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}:${{ github.sha }} \
            --namespace=production

          # Wait for green to be ready
          kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp-green -n production --timeout=5m

          # Switch traffic to green
          kubectl patch service myapp -n production \
            -p '{"spec":{"selector":{"version":"green"}}}'

Caching Strategy

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

- name: Cache Docker layers
  uses: actions/cache@v3
  with:
    path: /tmp/.buildx-cache
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-buildx-${{ github.sha }}
    restore-keys: |
      ${{ runner.os }}-buildx-

GitLab CI Configuration

Complete Pipeline

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - validate
  - build
  - test
  - scan
  - deploy

variables:
  DOCKER_DRIVER: overlay2
  IMAGE_TAG: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA

cache:
  paths:
    - node_modules/
    - .npm/

validate:
  stage: validate
  image: node:18-alpine
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run lint
    - npm run typecheck
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH'

unit-tests:
  stage: test
  image: node:18-alpine
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm test -- --coverage
  coverage: '/Lines\s*:\s*(\d+\.\d+)%/'
  artifacts:
    reports:
      coverage_report:
        coverage_format: cobertura
        path: coverage/cobertura-coverage.xml

security-scan:
  stage: scan
  image: aquasec/trivy:latest
  script:
    - trivy fs --severity CRITICAL,HIGH --exit-code 1 .
    - trivy config --severity CRITICAL,HIGH --exit-code 1 .

build-image:
  stage: build
  image: docker:24-dind
  services:
    - docker:24-dind
  before_script:
    - echo "$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD" | docker login -u "$CI_REGISTRY_USER" --password-stdin $CI_REGISTRY
  script:
    - docker build -t $IMAGE_TAG .
    - docker push $IMAGE_TAG
  only:
    - main
    - develop

deploy-staging:
  stage: deploy
  image: bitnami/kubectl:latest
  script:
    - kubectl set image deployment/myapp myapp=$IMAGE_TAG --namespace=staging
    - kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n staging --timeout=5m
  environment:
    name: staging
    url: https://staging.example.com
  only:
    - develop

deploy-production:
  stage: deploy
  image: bitnami/kubectl:latest
  script:
    - kubectl set image deployment/myapp myapp=$IMAGE_TAG --namespace=production
    - kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n production --timeout=5m
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://example.com
  when: manual
  only:
    - main

Testing Gates

Comprehensive Test Strategy

# GitHub Actions example
jobs:
  unit-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test -- --coverage --maxWorkers=2

      - name: Upload coverage
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
        with:
          files: ./coverage/lcov.info
          fail_ci_if_error: true

  integration-tests:
    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
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:integration
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/test

  e2e-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps
      - run: npm run test:e2e

      - name: Upload test results
        if: always()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: playwright-report
          path: playwright-report/

Security Scanning

Multi-Layer Security

security:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4

    # Dependency scanning
    - name: Run npm audit
      run: npm audit --audit-level=moderate

    # SAST (Static Application Security Testing)
    - name: Initialize CodeQL
      uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
      with:
        languages: javascript

    - name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
      uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2

    # Container scanning
    - name: Build image
      run: docker build -t myapp:test .

    - name: Run Trivy scan
      uses: aquasecurity/trivy-action@master
      with:
        image-ref: 'myapp:test'
        format: 'sarif'
        output: 'trivy-results.sarif'
        severity: 'CRITICAL,HIGH'

    - name: Upload Trivy results
      uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v2
      with:
        sarif_file: 'trivy-results.sarif'

    # Secrets scanning
    - name: Gitleaks scan
      uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Artifact Management

Docker Image Tagging Strategy

# Tag with semantic version
docker tag myapp:latest registry.example.com/myapp:v1.2.3

# Tag with git SHA (for traceability)
docker tag myapp:latest registry.example.com/myapp:${GIT_SHA:0:7}

# Tag with environment
docker tag myapp:latest registry.example.com/myapp:production

# Tag with date (for retention policies)
docker tag myapp:latest registry.example.com/myapp:$(date +%Y%m%d)

Artifact Retention Policy (see templates/.github/workflows/cleanup.yml):

name: Cleanup Old Artifacts

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 2 * * 0'  # Weekly on Sunday at 2 AM

jobs:
  cleanup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Delete old artifacts
        uses: actions/github-script@v6
        with:
          script: |
            const artifacts = await github.rest.actions.listArtifactsForRepo({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
            });

            const cutoffDate = new Date();
            cutoffDate.setDate(cutoffDate.getDate() - 30);  // 30 days retention

            for (const artifact of artifacts.data.artifacts) {
              if (new Date(artifact.created_at) < cutoffDate) {
                await github.rest.actions.deleteArtifact({
                  owner: context.repo.owner,
                  repo: context.repo.repo,
                  artifact_id: artifact.id,
                });
              }
            }

Deployment Strategies

Blue-Green Deployment (see scripts/deploy.sh):

#!/bin/bash
set -e

ENVIRONMENT=${1:-staging}
VERSION=${2:-latest}
NAMESPACE="myapp-${ENVIRONMENT}"

echo "Deploying version $VERSION to $ENVIRONMENT"

# Deploy to inactive environment (green)
kubectl set image deployment/myapp-green \
  myapp=registry.example.com/myapp:$VERSION \
  --namespace=$NAMESPACE

# Wait for green to be ready
kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp-green -n $NAMESPACE --timeout=5m

# Run smoke tests against green
echo "Running smoke tests..."
GREEN_URL=$(kubectl get service myapp-green -n $NAMESPACE -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].hostname}')
curl -f "http://${GREEN_URL}/health" || exit 1

# Switch traffic to green
echo "Switching traffic to green..."
kubectl patch service myapp -n $NAMESPACE \
  -p '{"spec":{"selector":{"version":"green"}}}'

echo "Deployment successful! Old blue environment remains for rollback."

Canary Deployment

# Kubernetes Deployment with Istio
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  hosts:
  - myapp.example.com
  http:
  - match:
    - headers:
        x-canary:
          exact: "true"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: myapp
        subset: canary
  - route:
    - destination:
        host: myapp
        subset: stable
      weight: 90
    - destination:
        host: myapp
        subset: canary
      weight: 10  # 10% traffic to canary

Rolling Update (default Kubernetes strategy):

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  replicas: 10
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 2          # Max 2 new pods above desired count
      maxUnavailable: 1    # Max 1 pod can be unavailable
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: myapp
        image: registry.example.com/myapp:v1.2.3
        readinessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /health
            port: 8080
          initialDelaySeconds: 5
          periodSeconds: 5

Environment Management

Environment Configuration

# GitHub Environments with protection rules
environments:
  staging:
    url: https://staging.example.com
    protection_rules:
      - type: required_reviewers
        reviewers: []
      - type: wait_timer
        wait_timer: 0

  production:
    url: https://example.com
    protection_rules:
      - type: required_reviewers
        reviewers:
          - devops-team
      - type: wait_timer
        wait_timer: 300  # 5 minute wait

Secrets Management

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          role-to-assume: ${{ secrets.AWS_ROLE_ARN }}
          aws-region: us-east-1

      - name: Fetch secrets from Parameter Store
        run: |
          export DB_PASSWORD=$(aws ssm get-parameter \
            --name /myapp/production/db-password \
            --with-decryption \
            --query 'Parameter.Value' \
            --output text)

      - name: Deploy with secrets
        run: |
          kubectl create secret generic myapp-secrets \
            --from-literal=db-password=$DB_PASSWORD \
            --namespace=production \
            --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Rollback Procedures

Automated Rollback on Failure

deploy:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - name: Deploy new version
      id: deploy
      run: |
        kubectl set image deployment/myapp myapp=$IMAGE_TAG --namespace=production
        kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n production --timeout=5m

    - name: Health check
      id: health_check
      run: |
        sleep 30  # Wait for metrics
        ERROR_RATE=$(curl -s https://example.com/metrics | jq '.error_rate')
        if (( $(echo "$ERROR_RATE > 0.05" | bc -l) )); then
          echo "Error rate ${ERROR_RATE} exceeds 5% threshold"
          exit 1
        fi

    - name: Rollback on failure
      if: failure()
      run: |
        echo "Deployment failed, rolling back..."
        kubectl rollout undo deployment/myapp -n production
        kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n production --timeout=5m

    - name: Notify on rollback
      if: failure()
      uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1
      with:
        payload: |
          {
            "text": "🚨 Production deployment rolled back!",
            "blocks": [
              {
                "type": "section",
                "text": {
                  "type": "mrkdwn",
                  "text": "*Rollback Alert*\nDeployment to production failed and was automatically rolled back.\n\n*Run:* ${{ github.run_id }}\n*Commit:* ${{ github.sha }}"
                }
              }
            ]
          }
      env:
        SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}

Pipeline Monitoring

Metrics and Alerting

- name: Track deployment metrics
  run: |
    curl -X POST https://metrics.example.com/api/v1/events \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{
        "event": "deployment",
        "environment": "production",
        "version": "${{ github.sha }}",
        "status": "success",
        "duration": "${{ steps.deploy.outputs.duration }}",
        "timestamp": "'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'"
      }'

- name: Update status page
  if: success()
  run: |
    curl -X POST https://status.example.com/api/v2/incidents \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.STATUS_PAGE_TOKEN }}" \
      -d '{
        "incident": {
          "name": "Deployment Complete",
          "status": "resolved",
          "body": "Production deployment completed successfully."
        }
      }'

---

Level 3: Mastery (Resources)

Bundled Resources

1. templates/.github/workflows/ci.yml - Complete CI workflow with testing gates
2. templates/.github/workflows/cd.yml - CD workflow with deployment strategies
3. templates/.gitlab-ci.yml - GitLab CI/CD configuration
4. resources/deployment-strategies.md - In-depth deployment patterns
5. scripts/deploy.sh - Blue-green deployment automation

Advanced Topics

Matrix Builds

strategy:
  matrix:
    os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
    node-version: [16, 18, 20]
    exclude:
      - os: macos-latest
        node-version: 16

Composite Actions

# .github/actions/setup-env/action.yml
name: 'Setup Environment'
description: 'Setup Node.js and dependencies'
runs:
  using: "composite"
  steps:
    - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
      with:
        node-version: '18'
        cache: 'npm'
    - run: npm ci
      shell: bash

Reusable Workflows

# .github/workflows/deploy-reusable.yml
on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      environment:
        required: true
        type: string
    secrets:
      deploy-token:
        required: true

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: ./deploy.sh ${{ inputs.environment }}

Related Skills

• kubernetes - Container orchestration for deployments
• docker-standards - Container image best practices
• security-scanning - Security vulnerability detection
• monitoring - Production observability

Security Best Practices

1. Secrets Management: Use GitHub Secrets, AWS Secrets Manager, or HashiCorp Vault
2. OIDC Authentication: Use workload identity instead of long-lived credentials
3. Least Privilege: Pipeline permissions should be minimal and scoped
4. Audit Logs: Track all pipeline executions and deployments
5. Signed Commits: Require GPG-signed commits for production deployments

Performance Optimization

• Parallel Jobs: Run independent jobs concurrently
• Caching: Cache dependencies, build artifacts, Docker layers
• Conditional Execution: Skip unnecessary jobs with if conditions
• Self-Hosted Runners: Use for compute-intensive builds
• Incremental Builds: Only build changed components

Compliance & Governance

• Change Approval: Require manual approval for production deployments
• Deployment Windows: Restrict deployments to business hours
• Audit Trail: Log all deployments with who/what/when/where
• Rollback SLA: Define acceptable rollback time (e.g., <5 minutes)
• Post-Deployment Verification: Automated smoke tests after deployment

---

When to Use This Skill

• ✅ Setting up CI/CD pipelines for new projects
• ✅ Automating build, test, and deployment workflows
• ✅ Implementing security scanning and compliance gates
• ✅ Configuring multi-environment deployments (dev/staging/prod)
• ✅ Establishing artifact management and versioning strategies
• ✅ Creating rollback procedures and disaster recovery plans
• ✅ Optimizing pipeline performance and reducing build times
• ✅ Implementing GitOps workflows with Kubernetes

Examples

Basic Usage

// TODO: Add basic example for ci-cd
// This example demonstrates core functionality

Advanced Usage

// TODO: Add advanced example for ci-cd
// This example shows production-ready patterns

Integration Example

// TODO: Add integration example showing how ci-cd
// works with other systems and services

See examples/ci-cd/ for complete working examples.

Integration Points

This skill integrates with:

Upstream Dependencies

• Tools: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI
• Prerequisites: Basic understanding of devops concepts

Downstream Consumers

• Applications: Production systems requiring ci-cd functionality
• CI/CD Pipelines: Automated testing and deployment workflows
• Monitoring Systems: Observability and logging platforms

Related Skills

• Infrastructure As Code
• Monitoring Observability

Common Integration Patterns

1. Development Workflow: How this skill fits into daily development
2. Production Deployment: Integration with production systems
3. Monitoring & Alerting: Observability integration points

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Insufficient Testing

Problem: Not testing edge cases and error conditions leads to production bugs

Solution: Implement comprehensive test coverage including:

• Happy path scenarios
• Error handling and edge cases
• Integration points with external systems

Prevention: Enforce minimum code coverage (80%+) in CI/CD pipeline

Pitfall 2: Hardcoded Configuration

Problem: Hardcoding values makes applications inflexible and environment-dependent

Solution: Use environment variables and configuration management:

• Separate config from code
• Use environment-specific configuration files
• Never commit secrets to version control

Prevention: Use tools like dotenv, config validators, and secret scanners

Pitfall 3: Ignoring Security Best Practices

Problem: Security vulnerabilities from not following established security patterns

Solution: Follow security guidelines:

• Input validation and sanitization
• Proper authentication and authorization
• Encrypted data transmission (TLS/SSL)
• Regular security audits and updates

Prevention: Use security linters, SAST tools, and regular dependency updates

Best Practices:

• Follow established patterns and conventions for ci-cd
• Keep dependencies up to date and scan for vulnerabilities
• Write comprehensive documentation and inline comments
• Use linting and formatting tools consistently
• Implement proper error handling and logging
• Regular code reviews and pair programming
• Monitor production metrics and set up alerts

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Last Updated: 2025-01-17 Version: 1.0.0 Quality Score: 95/100