CI/CD Pipeline Guide 2026: Automate Your Deployments

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

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

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: Setup Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: '20'
        cache: 'npm'
    
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm ci
    
    - name: Run linter
      run: npm run lint
    
    - name: Run tests
      run: npm test
    
    - name: Build
      run: npm run build

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

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: Setup Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: '20'
    
    - name: Install and Build
      run: |
        npm ci
        npm run build
    
    - name: Deploy to Vercel
      uses: amondnet/vercel-action@v25
      with:
        vercel-token: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
        vercel-org-id: ${{ secrets.ORG_ID }}
        vercel-project-id: ${{ secrets.PROJECT_ID }}
        vercel-args: '--prod'

name: Docker Build and Push

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
    tags: [ 'v*' ]

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: Set up Docker Buildx
      uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
    
    - name: Login to Docker Hub
      uses: docker/login-action@v2
      with:
        username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
        password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}
    
    - name: Build and push
      uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
      with:
        context: .
        push: true
        tags: |
          username/app:latest
          username/app:${{ github.sha }}
        cache-from: type=registry,ref=username/app:latest
        cache-to: type=inline

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - test
  - build
  - deploy

variables:
  NODE_VERSION: "20"

# Test Stage
test:
  stage: test
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  cache:
    paths:
      - node_modules/
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run lint
    - npm test
  only:
    - merge_requests
    - main

# Build Stage
build:
  stage: build
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/
    expire_in: 1 hour
  only:
    - main

# Deploy Stage
deploy_production:
  stage: deploy
  image: alpine:latest
  before_script:
    - apk add --no-cache curl
  script:
    - echo "Deploying to production..."
    - curl -X POST ${DEPLOY_WEBHOOK_URL}
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://myapp.com
  only:
    - main
  when: manual  # Requires manual approval

// Jenkinsfile
pipeline {
    agent any
    
    environment {
        NODE_VERSION = '20'
        DOCKER_IMAGE = 'username/myapp'
    }
    
    stages {
        stage('Checkout') {
            steps {
                checkout scm
            }
        }
        
        stage('Install') {
            steps {
                sh 'npm ci'
            }
        }
        
        stage('Test') {
            parallel {
                stage('Lint') {
                    steps {
                        sh 'npm run lint'
                    }
                }
                stage('Unit Tests') {
                    steps {
                        sh 'npm test'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        
        stage('Build') {
            steps {
                sh 'npm run build'
            }
        }
        
        stage('Docker Build') {
            steps {
                script {
                    docker.build("${DOCKER_IMAGE}:${BUILD_NUMBER}")
                }
            }
        }
        
        stage('Deploy') {
            when {
                branch 'main'
            }
            steps {
                script {
                    docker.withRegistry('https://registry.hub.docker.com', 'docker-credentials') {
                        docker.image("${DOCKER_IMAGE}:${BUILD_NUMBER}").push()
                        docker.image("${DOCKER_IMAGE}:${BUILD_NUMBER}").push('latest')
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    
    post {
        success {
            echo 'Pipeline succeeded!'
        }
        failure {
            echo 'Pipeline failed!'
        }
    }
}

# Example: Node.js Testing
- name: Run Tests
  run: |
    npm run test:unit
    npm run test:integration
    npm run test:e2e
  
- name: Upload Coverage
  uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
  with:
    files: ./coverage/coverage-final.json
    fail_ci_if_error: true

# GitHub Actions Secrets
steps:
  - name: Deploy
    env:
      API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}
      DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}
    run: |
      echo "Deploying with secrets..."

# GitLab CI Variables
deploy:
  script:
    - echo "API_KEY=${API_KEY}" >> .env
    - echo "DB_URL=${DATABASE_URL}" >> .env

# Best Practices:
• Never commit secrets to code
• Use environment-specific secrets
• Rotate secrets regularly
• Use secret managers (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
• Encrypt secrets at rest

# Slack Notification
- name: Slack Notification
  uses: 8398a7/action-slack@v3
  with:
    status: ${{ job.status }}
    text: 'Deployment ${{ job.status }}'
    webhook_url: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}
  if: always()

# Email Notification
post:
  failure:
    mail to: 'team@example.com',
         subject: "Pipeline Failed: ${env.JOB_NAME}",
         body: "Build failed. Check console output."

# Metrics
• Build duration
• Success/failure rate
• Deployment frequency
• Mean time to recovery (MTTR)