CI/CD Basics

CI/CD Basics

A pipeline automates what would otherwise be manual and error-prone: lint → test → build → deploy. That means understanding what each stage does, the basic YAML structure of a workflow file (jobs, steps, actions), and being able to read pipeline logs to work out which stage failed and why — using one tool such as GitHub Actions, without cloud infrastructure.

Starting Points

• GitLab Docs. Get started with GitLab CI/CD.
• GitHub Docs. Workflows.
• Kaufmann, M. (2023). Learning GitHub Actions. O'Reilly.

Key Points

• You set up a pipeline with the correct stages in the correct order: lint → test → build → deploy.
• You configure the pipeline using one CI/CD tool (e.g. GitHub Actions) with correct syntax.
• You explain what each stage does and why it comes in that order.
• You read pipeline output to identify which stage failed and why.
• You fix a broken pipeline step (e.g. a failing lint rule or test) and get the pipeline passing again.