CI/CD Pipelines

Comprehensive guide for CI/CD pipeline design, optimization, security, and troubleshooting across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and other platforms.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Creating new CI/CD workflows or pipelines
• Debugging pipeline failures or flaky tests
• Optimizing slow builds or test suites
• Implementing caching strategies
• Setting up deployment workflows
• Securing pipelines (secrets, OIDC, supply chain)
• Implementing DevSecOps security scanning (SAST, DAST, SCA)
• Troubleshooting platform-specific issues
• Analyzing pipeline performance
• Implementing matrix builds or test sharding
• Configuring multi-environment deployments

Core Workflows

1. Creating a New Pipeline

Decision tree:

What are you building?
├── Node.js/Frontend → GitHub: templates/github-actions/node-ci.yml | GitLab: templates/gitlab-ci/node-ci.yml
├── Python → GitHub: templates/github-actions/python-ci.yml | GitLab: templates/gitlab-ci/python-ci.yml
├── Go → GitHub: templates/github-actions/go-ci.yml | GitLab: templates/gitlab-ci/go-ci.yml
├── Docker Image → GitHub: templates/github-actions/docker-build.yml | GitLab: templates/gitlab-ci/docker-build.yml
├── Other → Follow the pipeline design pattern below

Basic pipeline structure:

# 1. Fast feedback (lint, format) - <1 min
# 2. Unit tests - 1-5 min
# 3. Integration tests - 5-15 min
# 4. Build artifacts
# 5. E2E tests (optional, main branch only) - 15-30 min
# 6. Deploy (with approval gates)

Key principles:

• Fail fast: Run cheap validation first
• Parallelize: Remove unnecessary job dependencies
• Cache dependencies: Use actions/cache or GitLab cache
• Use artifacts: Build once, deploy many times

See best_practices.md for comprehensive pipeline design patterns.

2. Optimizing Pipeline Performance

Quick wins checklist:

• Add dependency caching (50-90% faster builds)
• Remove unnecessary needs dependencies
• Add path filters to skip unnecessary runs
• Use npm ci instead of npm install
• Add job timeouts to prevent hung builds
• Enable concurrency cancellation for duplicate runs

Analyze existing pipeline:

# Use the pipeline analyzer script
python3 scripts/pipeline_analyzer.py --platform github --workflow .github/workflows/ci.yml

Common optimizations:

• Slow tests: Shard tests with matrix builds
• Repeated dependency installs: Add caching
• Sequential jobs: Parallelize with proper needs
• Full test suite on every PR: Use path filters or test impact analysis

See optimization.md for detailed caching strategies, parallelization techniques, and performance tuning.

3. Securing Your Pipeline

Essential security checklist:

• Use OIDC instead of static credentials
• Pin actions/includes to commit SHAs
• Use minimal permissions
• Enable secret scanning
• Add vulnerability scanning (dependencies, containers)
• Implement branch protection
• Separate test from deploy workflows

Quick setup - OIDC authentication:

GitHub Actions → AWS:

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read

steps:
  - uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
    with:
      role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789:role/GitHubActionsRole
      aws-region: us-east-1

Secrets management:

• Store in platform secret stores (GitHub Secrets, GitLab CI/CD Variables)
• Mark as "masked" in GitLab
• Use environment-specific secrets
• Rotate regularly (every 90 days)
• Never log secrets

See security.md for comprehensive security patterns, supply chain security, and secrets management.

4. Troubleshooting Pipeline Failures

Systematic approach:

Step 1: Check pipeline health

python3 scripts/ci_health.py --platform github --repo owner/repo

Step 2: Identify the failure type

Step 3: Enable debug logging

GitHub Actions:

# Add repository secrets:
# ACTIONS_RUNNER_DEBUG = true
# ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG = true

GitLab CI:

variables:
  CI_DEBUG_TRACE: "true"

Step 4: Reproduce locally

# GitHub Actions - use act
act -j build

# Or Docker
docker run -it ubuntu:latest bash
# Then manually run the failing steps

See troubleshooting.md for comprehensive issue diagnosis, platform-specific problems, and solutions.

5. Implementing Deployment Workflows

Deployment pattern selection:

Basic deployment structure:

deploy:
  needs: [build, test]
  if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://example.com
  steps:
    - name: Download artifacts
    - name: Deploy
    - name: Health check
    - name: Rollback on failure

Multi-environment setup:

• Development: Auto-deploy on develop branch
• Staging: Auto-deploy on main, requires passing tests
• Production: Manual approval required, smoke tests mandatory

See best_practices.md for detailed deployment patterns and environment management.

6. Implementing DevSecOps Security Scanning

Security scanning types:

Quick setup - Add security to existing pipeline:

GitHub Actions:

jobs:
  # Add before build job
  secret-scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - uses: trufflesecurity/trufflehog@main
      - uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2

  sast:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      security-events: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: github/codeql-action/init@v3
        with:
          languages: javascript  # or python, go
      - uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v3

  build:
    needs: [secret-scan, sast]  # Add dependencies

GitLab CI:

stages:
  - security  # Add before other stages
  - build
  - test

# Secret scanning
secret-scan:
  stage: security
  image: trufflesecurity/trufflehog:latest
  script:
    - trufflehog filesystem . --json --fail

# SAST
sast:semgrep:
  stage: security
  image: returntocorp/semgrep
  script:
    - semgrep scan --config=auto .

# Use GitLab templates
include:
  - template: Security/SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml

Comprehensive security pipeline templates:

• GitHub Actions: templates/github-actions/security-scan.yml - Complete DevSecOps pipeline with all scanning stages
• GitLab CI: templates/gitlab-ci/security-scan.yml - Complete DevSecOps pipeline with GitLab security templates

Security gate pattern:

Add a security gate job that evaluates all security scan results and fails the pipeline if critical issues are found:

security-gate:
  needs: [secret-scan, sast, sca, container-scan]
  script:
    # Check for critical vulnerabilities
    # Parse JSON reports and evaluate thresholds
    # Fail if critical issues found

Language-specific security tools:

• Node.js: CodeQL, Semgrep, npm audit, eslint-plugin-security
• Python: CodeQL, Semgrep, Bandit, pip-audit, Safety
• Go: CodeQL, Semgrep, Gosec, govulncheck

All language-specific templates now include security scanning stages. See:

• templates/github-actions/node-ci.yml
• templates/github-actions/python-ci.yml
• templates/github-actions/go-ci.yml
• templates/gitlab-ci/node-ci.yml
• templates/gitlab-ci/python-ci.yml
• templates/gitlab-ci/go-ci.yml

See devsecops.md for comprehensive DevSecOps guide covering all security scanning types, tool comparisons, and implementation patterns.

Quick Reference Commands

GitHub Actions

# List workflows
gh workflow list

# View recent runs
gh run list --limit 20

# View specific run
gh run view <run-id>

# Re-run failed jobs
gh run rerun <run-id> --failed

# Download logs
gh run view <run-id> --log > logs.txt

# Trigger workflow manually
gh workflow run ci.yml

# Check workflow status
gh run watch

GitLab CI

# View pipelines
gl project-pipelines list

# Pipeline status
gl project-pipeline get <pipeline-id>

# Retry failed jobs
gl project-pipeline retry <pipeline-id>

# Cancel pipeline
gl project-pipeline cancel <pipeline-id>

# Download artifacts
gl project-job artifacts <job-id>

Platform-Specific Patterns

GitHub Actions

Reusable workflows:

# .github/workflows/reusable-test.yml
on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      node-version:
        required: true
        type: string

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ inputs.node-version }}

Call from another workflow:

jobs:
  test:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/reusable-test.yml
    with:
      node-version: '20'

GitLab CI

Templates with extends:

.test_template:
  image: node:20
  before_script:
    - npm ci

unit-test:
  extends: .test_template
  script:
    - npm run test:unit

integration-test:
  extends: .test_template
  script:
    - npm run test:integration

DAG pipelines with needs:

build:
  stage: build

test:unit:
  stage: test
  needs: [build]

test:integration:
  stage: test
  needs: [build]

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  needs: [test:unit, test:integration]

Diagnostic Scripts

Pipeline Analyzer

Analyzes workflow configuration for optimization opportunities:

# GitHub Actions
python3 scripts/pipeline_analyzer.py --platform github --workflow .github/workflows/ci.yml

# GitLab CI
python3 scripts/pipeline_analyzer.py --platform gitlab --config .gitlab-ci.yml

Identifies:

• Missing caching opportunities
• Unnecessary sequential execution
• Outdated action versions
• Unused artifacts
• Overly broad triggers

CI Health Checker

Checks pipeline status and identifies issues:

# GitHub Actions
python3 scripts/ci_health.py --platform github --repo owner/repo --limit 20

# GitLab CI
python3 scripts/ci_health.py --platform gitlab --project-id 12345 --token $GITLAB_TOKEN

Provides:

• Success/failure rates
• Recent failure patterns
• Workflow-specific insights
• Actionable recommendations

Reference Documentation

For deep-dive information on specific topics:

• best_practices.md - Pipeline design, testing strategies, deployment patterns, dependency management, artifact handling, platform-specific patterns
• security.md - Secrets management, OIDC authentication, supply chain security, access control, vulnerability scanning, secure pipeline patterns
• devsecops.md - Comprehensive DevSecOps guide: SAST (CodeQL, Semgrep, Bandit, Gosec), DAST (OWASP ZAP), SCA (npm audit, pip-audit, Snyk), container security (Trivy, Grype, SBOM), secret scanning (TruffleHog, Gitleaks), security gates, license compliance
• optimization.md - Caching strategies (dependencies, Docker layers, build artifacts), parallelization techniques, test splitting, build optimization, resource management
• troubleshooting.md - Common issues (workflow not triggering, flaky tests, timeouts, dependency errors), Docker problems, authentication issues, platform-specific debugging

Templates

Starter templates for common use cases:

GitHub Actions

• assets/templates/github-actions/node-ci.yml - Complete Node.js CI/CD with security scanning, caching, matrix testing, and multi-environment deployment
• assets/templates/github-actions/python-ci.yml - Python pipeline with security scanning, pytest, coverage, PyPI deployment
• assets/templates/github-actions/go-ci.yml - Go pipeline with security scanning, multi-platform builds, benchmarks, integration tests
• assets/templates/github-actions/docker-build.yml - Docker build with multi-platform support, security scanning, SBOM generation, and signing
• assets/templates/github-actions/security-scan.yml - Comprehensive DevSecOps pipeline with SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning, and security gates

GitLab CI

• assets/templates/gitlab-ci/node-ci.yml - GitLab CI pipeline with security scanning, parallel execution, services, and deployment stages
• assets/templates/gitlab-ci/python-ci.yml - Python pipeline with security scanning, parallel testing, Docker builds, PyPI and Cloud Run deployment
• assets/templates/gitlab-ci/go-ci.yml - Go pipeline with security scanning, multi-platform builds, benchmarks, Kubernetes deployment
• assets/templates/gitlab-ci/docker-build.yml - Docker build with DinD, multi-arch, Container Registry, security scanning
• assets/templates/gitlab-ci/security-scan.yml - Comprehensive DevSecOps pipeline with SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning, GitLab security templates, and security gates

Common Patterns

Caching Dependencies

GitHub Actions:

- uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: ~/.npm
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
    restore-keys: |
      ${{ runner.os }}-node-
- run: npm ci

GitLab CI:

cache:
  key:
    files:
      - package-lock.json
  paths:
    - node_modules/

Matrix Builds

GitHub Actions:

strategy:
  matrix:
    os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest]
    node: [18, 20, 22]
  fail-fast: false

GitLab CI:

test:
  parallel:
    matrix:
      - NODE_VERSION: ['18', '20', '22']

Conditional Execution

GitHub Actions:

- name: Deploy
  if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push'

GitLab CI:

deploy:
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'
      when: manual

Best Practices Summary

Performance:

• Enable dependency caching
• Parallelize independent jobs
• Add path filters to reduce unnecessary runs
• Use matrix builds for cross-platform testing

Security:

• Use OIDC for cloud authentication
• Pin actions to commit SHAs
• Enable secret scanning and vulnerability checks
• Apply principle of least privilege

Reliability:

• Add timeouts to prevent hung jobs
• Implement retry logic for flaky operations
• Use health checks after deployments
• Enable concurrency cancellation

Maintainability:

• Use reusable workflows/templates
• Document non-obvious decisions
• Keep workflows DRY with extends/includes
• Regular dependency updates

Getting Started

1. New pipeline: Start with a template from assets/templates/
2. Add security scanning: Use DevSecOps templates or add security stages to existing pipelines (see workflow 6 above)
3. Optimize existing: Run scripts/pipeline_analyzer.py
4. Debug issues: Check references/troubleshooting.md
5. Improve security: Review references/security.md and references/devsecops.md checklists
6. Speed up builds: See references/optimization.md