CI/CD Pipeline Builder Skill

Overview

This skill helps you build robust CI/CD pipelines for automated testing, building, and deployment. Covers GitHub Actions, Vercel integration, testing strategies, deployment patterns, and security best practices.

CI/CD Philosophy

Pipeline Principles

1. Fast feedback: Fail early, inform quickly
2. Reproducible: Same inputs = same outputs
3. Secure: Secrets protected, dependencies verified
4. Observable: Clear logs, status visibility

Pipeline Stages

Trigger → Lint → Test → Build → Deploy → Verify

GitHub Actions Fundamentals

Basic Workflow Structure

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

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

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  lint:
    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 run lint

  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: lint
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [lint, test]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build

Complete Next.js CI/CD Pipeline

# .github/workflows/ci-cd.yml
name: CI/CD Pipeline

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

env:
  NODE_VERSION: '20'
  VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
  VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}

jobs:
  # ===================
  # Quality Checks
  # ===================
  quality:
    name: Code Quality
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Type check
        run: npm run typecheck

      - name: Lint
        run: npm run lint

      - name: Format check
        run: npm run format:check

  # ===================
  # Unit & Integration Tests
  # ===================
  test:
    name: Tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: quality
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Run tests
        run: npm run test:ci

      - name: Upload coverage
        uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.CODECOV_TOKEN }}
          files: ./coverage/lcov.info
          fail_ci_if_error: false

  # ===================
  # Build
  # ===================
  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [quality, test]
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build
        env:
          NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY }}

      - name: Upload build artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: build
          path: .next
          retention-days: 1

  # ===================
  # E2E Tests
  # ===================
  e2e:
    name: E2E Tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Install Playwright browsers
        run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

      - name: Download build
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: build
          path: .next

      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: npm run test:e2e
        env:
          NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY }}

      - name: Upload test results
        if: failure()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: playwright-report
          path: playwright-report
          retention-days: 7

  # ===================
  # Deploy Preview (PRs)
  # ===================
  deploy-preview:
    name: Deploy Preview
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [build, e2e]
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
    environment:
      name: preview
      url: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.url }}
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install Vercel CLI
        run: npm install -g vercel

      - name: Pull Vercel Environment
        run: vercel pull --yes --environment=preview --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: Build Project
        run: vercel build --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        id: deploy
        run: |
          url=$(vercel deploy --prebuilt --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }})
          echo "url=$url" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

      - name: Comment PR with URL
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            github.rest.issues.createComment({
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              body: `🚀 Preview deployed to: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.url }}`
            })

  # ===================
  # Deploy Production
  # ===================
  deploy-production:
    name: Deploy Production
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [build, e2e]
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push'
    environment:
      name: production
      url: https://myapp.com
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install Vercel CLI
        run: npm install -g vercel

      - name: Pull Vercel Environment
        run: vercel pull --yes --environment=production --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: Build Project
        run: vercel build --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        run: vercel deploy --prebuilt --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

Testing Strategies

Parallel Test Execution

# .github/workflows/test-parallel.yml
name: Parallel Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        shard: [1, 2, 3, 4]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      - run: npm ci

      - name: Run tests (shard ${{ matrix.shard }}/4)
        run: npm run test -- --shard=${{ matrix.shard }}/4

  merge-results:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Report results
        run: echo "All test shards passed!"

Matrix Testing

# .github/workflows/matrix-test.yml
name: Matrix Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
        node: [18, 20, 22]
        exclude:
          - os: windows-latest
            node: 18
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Database Integration

Supabase in CI

# .github/workflows/test-with-db.yml
name: Tests with Database

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:15
        env:
          POSTGRES_USER: postgres
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
          POSTGRES_DB: test_db
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
        options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Setup Supabase CLI
        uses: supabase/setup-cli@v1

      - name: Start Supabase
        run: supabase start

      - name: Run migrations
        run: supabase db reset
        env:
          SUPABASE_DB_URL: postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:54322/postgres

      - name: Run tests
        run: npm run test:integration
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:54322/postgres
          SUPABASE_URL: http://localhost:54321
          SUPABASE_ANON_KEY: ${{ secrets.SUPABASE_ANON_KEY }}

Release Automation

Automated Releases

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Create Release
        uses: google-github-actions/release-please-action@v4
        with:
          release-type: node
          package-name: my-app

      - name: Publish to npm
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
        run: npm publish
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

Changelog Generation

# .github/workflows/changelog.yml
name: Changelog

on:
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  update-changelog:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: main

      - name: Update CHANGELOG
        uses: stefanzweifel/changelog-updater-action@v1
        with:
          latest-version: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}
          release-notes: ${{ github.event.release.body }}

      - name: Commit changes
        uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v5
        with:
          commit_message: "docs: update CHANGELOG for ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}"
          file_pattern: CHANGELOG.md

Security Scanning

Dependency & Code Scanning

# .github/workflows/security.yml
name: Security

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'  # Weekly

jobs:
  dependency-audit:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      - run: npm audit --audit-level=high

  codeql:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      security-events: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: github/codeql-action/init@v3
        with:
          languages: javascript
      - uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v3

  secrets-scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Caching Strategies

Effective Caching

# .github/workflows/cached-build.yml
name: Cached Build

on: [push, pull_request]

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

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      # Cache Next.js build
      - name: Cache Next.js
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: |
            .next/cache
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-nextjs-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}-${{ hashFiles('**/*.js', '**/*.jsx', '**/*.ts', '**/*.tsx') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-nextjs-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}-

      # Cache Playwright browsers
      - name: Cache Playwright
        uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.cache/ms-playwright
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-playwright-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build

Environment Management

Environment-Based Deployments

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

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - develop

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && 'production' || 'staging' }}
      url: ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && 'https://myapp.com' || 'https://staging.myapp.com' }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Deploy to ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && 'production' || 'staging' }}
        run: |
          echo "Deploying to ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && 'production' || 'staging' }}"
        env:
          API_URL: ${{ vars.API_URL }}
          API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}

Workflow Optimization

Conditional Jobs

# .github/workflows/smart-ci.yml
name: Smart CI

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

jobs:
  changes:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      frontend: ${{ steps.filter.outputs.frontend }}
      backend: ${{ steps.filter.outputs.backend }}
      docs: ${{ steps.filter.outputs.docs }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: dorny/paths-filter@v3
        id: filter
        with:
          filters: |
            frontend:
              - 'src/app/**'
              - 'src/components/**'
            backend:
              - 'src/api/**'
              - 'src/lib/**'
            docs:
              - 'docs/**'
              - '*.md'

  test-frontend:
    needs: changes
    if: ${{ needs.changes.outputs.frontend == 'true' }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:frontend

  test-backend:
    needs: changes
    if: ${{ needs.changes.outputs.backend == 'true' }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:backend

  deploy-docs:
    needs: changes
    if: ${{ needs.changes.outputs.docs == 'true' }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm run build:docs

Notification & Reporting

Slack Notifications

# .github/workflows/notify.yml
name: CI with Notifications

on: [push]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build

  notify:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: always()
    steps:
      - name: Notify Slack
        uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1
        with:
          payload: |
            {
              "text": "${{ needs.build.result == 'success' && '✅' || '❌' }} Build ${{ needs.build.result }}",
              "blocks": [
                {
                  "type": "section",
                  "text": {
                    "type": "mrkdwn",
                    "text": "*${{ github.repository }}* - ${{ github.ref_name }}\nCommit: ${{ github.sha }}\nBy: ${{ github.actor }}"
                  }
                }
              ]
            }
        env:
          SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          SLACK_WEBHOOK_TYPE: INCOMING_WEBHOOK

Pipeline Checklist

Essential Components

• Lint and format checks
• Type checking (TypeScript)
• Unit and integration tests
• Build verification
• Security scanning

Deployment

• Preview deployments for PRs
• Production deployment on main
• Environment-specific configs
• Rollback capability

Performance

• Effective caching strategy
• Parallel job execution
• Conditional job execution
• Build artifact reuse

Security

• Secrets properly managed
• Dependency auditing
• Code scanning enabled
• Protected environments

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when:

• Setting up CI/CD for a new project
• Optimizing slow pipelines
• Adding deployment automation
• Implementing release management
• Setting up security scanning
• Configuring environment-based deployments
• Creating preview environments