Ci Cd

Process

Step 1: Design Pipeline Stages

A typical pipeline:

Commit -> Lint -> Build -> Unit Test -> Integration Test -> Security Scan -> Deploy Staging -> Deploy Production

Each stage should:

• Fail fast (cheapest checks first)
• Run in isolation (no shared state between stages)
• Produce artifacts usable by downstream stages

For brownfield or compatibility-sensitive delivery, include explicit gates for:

• contract/integration behavior that protects release boundaries
• coexistence or rollback verification
• staged rollout readiness rather than a single blind production hop

Step 2: Configure Build Environment

• Use containerized builds for reproducibility (same result locally and in CI)
• Pin dependency versions (lockfile committed)
• Cache dependencies between runs for speed
• Matrix builds for multi-platform support

Step 3: Automate Testing

• Unit tests run on every commit (< 5 min)
• Integration tests run on every PR (< 15 min)
• E2E tests run before deployment (< 30 min)
• Parallelize test suites where possible

Match stages to the reviewed test strategy rather than assuming a generic default. Unsupported-flow or coexistence tests should run where they can actually stop an unsafe deploy.

Step 4: Automate Deployment

• Staging: auto-deploy on merge to main
• Production: one-click (or auto) deploy with approval gate
• Use infrastructure-as-code for environment consistency
• Implement rollback automation

If release boundaries or sync semantics remain constrained, use staging and gated rollout steps that fail closed rather than pipelines that assume instant full production rollout.

Step 5: Configure Notifications

• Notify on failure (but not on success -- reduce noise)
• Link to logs and artifacts for quick debugging
• Alert on deployment completion

Outputs

• ci-cd-pipeline -- produced by this skill
• build-artifacts -- produced by this skill

Quality Gate

• Pipeline runs on every PR and merge to main
• Build time < 15 minutes for fast feedback
• All test types automated (unit, integration, security scan)
• Staging deployment automated
• Rollback mechanism tested
• Brownfield coexistence or release-boundary checks are enforced where applicable

Anti-Patterns

1. "It works on my machine" -- Containerize builds. Environment differences are bugs.
2. Slow pipelines -- If CI takes 30+ minutes, developers skip it. Optimize relentlessly.
3. Flaky tests in CI -- Quarantine or fix immediately. A flaky pipeline is a useless pipeline.
4. Manual deployment steps -- "SSH into the server and run this script" is not CI/CD.
5. No rollback plan -- Every deployment must have a tested rollback path.
6. Pipeline that ignores release boundaries -- Shipping a generic pipeline that never verifies unsupported-flow behavior, coexistence, or rollback readiness for the current slice.

Related Skills

• testing-strategy -- defines what tests to run in the pipeline
• deployment-strategy -- defines deployment patterns (blue-green, canary)
• release-management -- coordinates release process
• monitoring-observability -- post-deployment validation

Distribution

• Public install surface: skills/.curated
• Canonical authoring source: skills/06-delivery/ci-cd/SKILL.md
• This package is exported for npx skills add/update compatibility.
• Packaging stability: beta
• Capability readiness: beta