CI/CD Pipeline Explained

What is CI/CD?

CI/CD automates the path from code to production. CI (Continuous Integration) auto-tests every change; CD (Continuous Delivery/Deployment) auto-releases it.

The Pipeline Stages

Commit → Build → Test → Deploy to Staging → Deploy to Production

Continuous Integration

Every push triggers an automated build and test run, catching bugs early before they reach others.

Continuous Delivery vs Deployment

	Delivery	Deployment
To production	Manual approval	Fully automatic

Example Pipeline (GitHub Actions)

on: push
jobs:
  pipeline:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm install
      - run: npm test       # CI
      - run: npm run deploy  # CD

Benefits

• Catch bugs in minutes, not weeks.
• Release confidently and frequently.
• Less manual, error-prone work.

FAQs

Popular CI/CD tools?

GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI. More in our DevOps section.

Where do I start?

GitHub Actions — built into GitHub and easy to learn.