CI/CD Pipelines

Comprehensive guide to building, configuring, and optimizing CI/CD pipelines across multiple platforms including GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, and more.

Cross-reference: For GitHub Actions specifically, see the dedicated github-actions skill which covers workflows, matrix builds, caching, secrets, and reusable actions in depth.

CI/CD Pipeline Fundamentals

Core Concepts

• Continuous Integration (CI): Automatically build and test code on every commit
• Continuous Delivery (CD): Automatically prepare releases for deployment (manual trigger)
• Continuous Deployment (CD): Automatically deploy every change that passes the pipeline

Pipeline Anatomy

Commit -> Build -> Test -> Scan -> Stage -> Deploy -> Monitor