CI CD Pipeline

Build pragmatic CI/CD pipelines

A pipeline that runs in 2 minutes and deploys reliably beats one that does everything and breaks weekly. Detect the real stack; emit stages that match the project's actual commands.

Canonical pipeline stages

lint → test → build → scan → deploy-staging → smoke-test → deploy-prod

Not every project needs all stages. Drop what adds no signal; never skip test and lint.

Stack detection signals

Steps

1. Detect the stack. Read package.json, pom.xml, lockfiles, and Dockerfile — do not guess. Extract the actual test, lint, and build commands from the project's own scripts.
2. Choose the minimal stage set. Map detected commands to pipeline stages. If a stage has no command, omit it — a placeholder stage that always passes adds noise.
3. Configure caching. Cache dependency directories keyed by lockfile hash (e.g. pnpm-lock.yaml, go.sum). A cache miss should still produce a correct build.
4. Add secrets hygiene. All credentials via CI secret store — never hardcoded. Mask secrets in logs. Principle of least privilege for deploy tokens.
5. Emit the pipeline file. GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/ci.yml) or GitLab CI (.gitlab-ci.yml) depending on the platform. Validate YAML syntax before committing.
6. Verify. Trigger the pipeline on a feature branch; confirm all stages pass; record timings; submit for review.

Build / Test

• Validate YAML with the platform's own linter (actionlint for GitHub Actions, gitlab-ci-lint for GitLab) before push.
• Confirm cache restores by running the pipeline twice — second run should be significantly faster.
• Deploy stages: dry-run (--dry-run or preview) first; then gate production deploy on staging smoke-test pass.

Review checklist

• Stages match actual project commands — no placeholder steps, no undocumented scripts.
• Caching wired — lockfile-keyed; cache miss still produces correct build.
• No secrets in YAML — all credentials from CI secret store; masked in output.
• Minimal stage set — every stage has a real command and a reason to exist.
• Branch protection respected — PR pipeline required-to-pass before merge on default branch.

Rules

• Always read the project's own package.json/Makefile/pom.xml for the real commands — never invent them.
• Secrets from the CI secret store only; rotation policy documented.
• Fail fast: put linting before testing; put cheap checks before expensive ones.

Capture lore

Pipeline structure, deploy targets, secret names, and environment promotion policy are high-value lore. Call suggest_lore with tags: [ci-cd, pipeline, deploy] when you learn them.