CI/CD refers to the combined practices of continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), or deployment, which aims to streamline and accelerate the software development lifecycle.
It's a method that allows software development and IT teams to deliver code changes more frequently and reliably.
CI/CD is often referred to as a "CI/CD pipeline" and is supported by development and operations teams working together in an agile way.
Wondering how to bring CI/CD to your GitHub project?
GitHub Actions is the key to making it happen!
CI/CD can be made easier using GitHub Actions.
GitHub Actions is a CI/CD tool that automates software development workflows directly within your GitHub repository.
It allows you to automate tasks across pull requests and issues.
GitHub Actions is designed to simplify workflows with flexible automation and easy-to-use CI/CD capabilities.
It brings continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) directly to the GitHub flow.
You’ll have to know a few core concepts before working with GitHub Actions:
Workflows: Automated processes comprised of jobs triggered by events; defined in YAML files within the .github/workflows directory.
Events: Triggers that start a workflow, such as creating a branch or opening a pull request.
Jobs: Tasks executed in a workflow, which can run in parallel.
Actions: Reusable code packages that perform complex tasks within workflows, like sending notifications. They can be custom or from the GitHub Marketplace.
Runners: The servers that execute your workflows.
You can tailor and build GitHub Actions to automate any tasks you need.
You’ll have to know some basic YAML to start your GitHub Actions journey.
However, you don’t have to know it by heart.
You can refer to the documentation and do it on your own.
The only thing you’ll have to remember is how it works.
If you ask me, "Have you worked with GitHub Actions?"—my answer is a definite "Yes!"
GitHub Actions will make your life easier when you are maintaining any open-source projects.
It will reduce your workload 10x when you have automated the CI/CD through GitHub Actions.
I have used GitHub Actions for my open-source project CampX. It made my maintenance job easier.
You can use GitHub Actions for any job that you have to carry out in your open-source project; it can be a simple or complex job.
I’ve used GitHub Actions:
To greet the contributor when they create their first issue on my project.
To add labels to the issues and pull requests created.
To validate the PRs, ensuring they’ve filled in all the necessary details in the PR template.
These are just simple tasks, but you’ll save so much time automating them using GitHub Actions.
You can use GitHub Actions to check if code changes work properly or if they break the website—and so much more.
If you feel too lazy to create a GitHub action from scratch, the GitHub Marketplace has thousands of GitHub actions ready to use.
Here are some examples of the GitHub Actions workflows that I used:
The below workflow file is what I used for greeting the contributors.
The below workflow file is what I used for labelling the issues and PRs.
The below workflow file is what I used for validating the PRs.
GitHub Actions is a game-changer for automating workflows and simplifying CI/CD.
Whether you're managing an open-source project or streamlining deployments, it saves time and effort.
Have you tried GitHub Actions in your projects? Let me know how it's helped you or what you're looking to automate next!