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Building CI/CD Pipelines

Master plan for designing, implementing, and optimizing continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines. This skill covers pipeline architecture patterns, build optimization, deployment strategies, and integration with modern development workflows.

Status: 🟢 Master Plan Available

Key Topics​

  • Pipeline Architecture: Multi-stage pipelines, parallel execution, job dependencies, artifact management
  • Build Optimization: Caching strategies, incremental builds, distributed builds, build matrix patterns
  • Testing Integration: Unit tests, integration tests, E2E tests, security scanning, test parallelization
  • Deployment Strategies: Blue-green deployments, canary releases, rolling updates, feature flags
  • Pipeline Triggers: Git hooks, scheduled builds, manual approvals, external events
  • Environment Management: Environment variables, secrets management, environment promotion
  • Monitoring & Observability: Build metrics, failure analysis, pipeline health dashboards
  • Multi-Platform Builds: Cross-platform compilation, Docker builds, native builds

Primary Tools & Technologies​

  • CI/CD Platforms: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure DevOps, Buildkite
  • Build Tools: Make, Gradle, Maven, Bazel, Yarn, npm, Go modules
  • Container Tools: Docker, Buildah, Kaniko, BuildKit
  • Testing Frameworks: Jest, pytest, JUnit, Cypress, Playwright
  • Security Scanning: Snyk, Trivy, SonarQube, GitHub Advanced Security
  • Artifact Storage: Artifactory, Nexus, GitHub Packages, Azure Artifacts

Integration Points​

  • GitOps Workflows: Pipeline outputs trigger GitOps deployments
  • Writing Dockerfiles: Container builds within CI pipelines
  • Testing Strategies: Test execution and reporting in pipelines
  • Platform Engineering: Pipelines as part of internal developer platforms
  • Incident Management: Automated rollbacks and incident response
  • Infrastructure as Code: Infrastructure validation and deployment
  • Security Operations: Security scanning and compliance checks

Use Cases​

  • Setting up CI/CD for microservices architectures
  • Implementing monorepo build strategies
  • Optimizing slow build and test pipelines
  • Designing deployment pipelines with multiple environments
  • Creating reusable pipeline templates
  • Implementing security scanning in CI/CD
  • Building cross-platform release pipelines

Decision Framework​

Choose pipeline strategy based on:

  • Repository structure (monorepo vs multi-repo)
  • Team size and workflow (trunk-based vs feature branches)
  • Deployment frequency (continuous vs scheduled)
  • Security requirements (compliance, scanning, approvals)
  • Infrastructure target (Kubernetes, VMs, serverless, hybrid)

Optimize for:

  • Fast feedback (failing fast on errors)
  • Developer experience (clear logs, easy troubleshooting)
  • Resource efficiency (parallelization, caching)
  • Reliability (retries, idempotency, rollback capabilities)