Building Your First CI/CD Pipeline with GitHub Actions

Stop manually copying files to your server via FileZilla. CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) is the practice of automating the software delivery process to catch bugs early and ship faster.

The Workflow

1. Code: You push code to GitHub.
2. Test (CI): GitHub Actions sees the push and spins up a fresh, isolated server (runner). It installs dependencies and runs your tests (npm test). If they fail, the pipeline stops, and you get an email. Broken code never reaches production.
3. Build: If tests pass, it compiles your binary or builds your Docker image and pushes it to a registry.
4. Deploy (CD): It securely logs into your production server (using SSH keys stored in GitHub Secrets) and updates the running application with zero downtime.

Secrets Management

Never commit passwords or API keys to Git. Use GitHub Secrets. These are encrypted variables injected into the build environment only when needed.

• ${{ secrets.DB_PASSWORD }}
• ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY }}

Why it matters

Manual deployments are slow and prone to human error ("Oops, I uploaded the wrong config file"). CI/CD makes deployment boring, predictable, and repeatable.

Key Takeaway

Automate everything. If you do it more than twice, write a script. If you run the script more than twice, put it in a CI pipeline. This is the path to sleeping soundly at night.