Setup Pipeline Command

Set up a CI/CD testing pipeline following best practices for fast feedback and comprehensive validation.

Core Principle

Progressive testing: fast feedback on PR, full validation on merge.

Don't run all tests on every commit. Run the right tests at the right time.

Pipeline Stages

Event	Tests to Run	Target Duration	Purpose
Pre-Push (local)	Lint + unit	< 2 min	Catch obvious issues
Pull Request	Lint + unit + integration	< 15 min	Gate before merge
Merge to Main	All tests	< 30 min	Full validation
Nightly	All + performance + security	< 60 min	Catch regressions
Pre-Deploy	Smoke tests (5-10 E2E)	< 5 min	Production sanity

GitHub Actions Template

# .github/workflows/test.yml
name: Tests

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

jobs:
  # Fast feedback - runs on every PR
  unit-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
          cache: 'pip'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -e ".[dev]"

      - name: Lint
        run: ruff check .

      - name: Unit tests
        run: pytest tests/unit/ -v --tb=short

    # Target: < 5 minutes

  # Runs on PR, gates merge
  integration-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: unit-tests  # Only if unit tests pass
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
          cache: 'pip'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -e ".[dev]"

      - name: Integration tests
        run: pytest tests/integration/ -v --tb=short

    # Target: < 10 minutes

  # Full suite - only on merge to main
  e2e-tests:
    if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [unit-tests, integration-tests]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
          cache: 'pip'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -e ".[dev]"

      - name: E2E tests
        run: pytest tests/e2e/ -v --tb=short

    # Target: < 15 minutes

GitLab CI Template

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - lint
  - unit
  - integration
  - e2e

variables:
  PIP_CACHE_DIR: "$CI_PROJECT_DIR/.cache/pip"

cache:
  paths:
    - .cache/pip/

# Always runs
lint:
  stage: lint
  script:
    - pip install ruff
    - ruff check .
  rules:
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

# Always runs
unit-tests:
  stage: unit
  script:
    - pip install -e ".[dev]"
    - pytest tests/unit/ -v
  rules:
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

# Runs on MR and main
integration-tests:
  stage: integration
  script:
    - pip install -e ".[dev]"
    - pytest tests/integration/ -v
  needs: [unit-tests]
  rules:
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

# Only on main
e2e-tests:
  stage: e2e
  script:
    - pip install -e ".[dev]"
    - pytest tests/e2e/ -v
  needs: [integration-tests]
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH

Key Patterns

1. Fail Fast

# Stop on first failure in CI
pytest tests/ -x --fail-fast

2. Parallel Execution

# Run tests in parallel
pytest tests/ -n auto  # Uses pytest-xdist

3. Caching

# Cache dependencies between runs
cache:
  paths:
    - .venv/
    - node_modules/

4. Conditional Stages

# Only run E2E on main, not on every PR
if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Anti-Pattern	Problem	Fix
All tests on every commit	30+ min feedback	Progressive stages
No caching	Slow installs	Cache dependencies
E2E on every PR	Slow, flaky	E2E on merge only
No fail-fast	Wastes time	Stop on first failure
No parallelization	Sequential bottleneck	Use -n auto

Output Format

After generating pipeline:

## Pipeline Created

### Files Generated
- [path to workflow file]

### Stages
1. **Lint + Unit** (PR): < 5 min
2. **Integration** (PR): < 10 min
3. **E2E** (Main only): < 15 min

### Next Steps
1. Commit the workflow file
2. Create test directories if missing:
   - tests/unit/
   - tests/integration/
   - tests/e2e/
3. Run locally to verify: `act` (for GitHub Actions)

Load Detailed Guidance

For comprehensive CI/CD patterns:

Load skill: ordis-quality-engineering:using-quality-engineering
Then read: test-automation-architecture.md

For quality gates:

Then read: quality-metrics-and-kpis.md