GitHub Actions CI/CD

"If it's not automated, it's not reliable." — Unknown

TL;DR

Guides GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline creation — building workflows for linting, testing, building, and deploying with matrix strategies, dependency caching, environment secrets, and deployment protection rules. Use when setting up or improving continuous integration and deployment for a project. [EXPLICIT]

Procedure

Step 1: Discover

• Check existing .github/workflows/ directory for current workflows
• Identify pipeline stages needed (lint, test, build, deploy)
• Review required Node.js versions and environment variables
• Determine deployment targets (Firebase, Hostinger, Vercel, Netlify)

Step 2: Analyze

• Design workflow triggers: push to main, pull request, manual dispatch
• Plan job dependencies: lint → test → build → deploy (sequential)
• Evaluate matrix strategy for multi-version testing
• Design secret management for API keys and deployment credentials

Step 3: Execute

• Create .github/workflows/ci.yml with lint, test, and build jobs
• Configure dependency caching with actions/cache for node_modules
• Set up matrix strategy for Node.js version testing
• Add deployment job with environment protection rules
• Store secrets in GitHub repository settings (never in workflow files)
• Configure status checks as required for PR merging
• Add concurrency groups to cancel outdated workflow runs
• Set up Slack/email notifications for deployment status

Step 4: Validate

• Verify workflow triggers on PR and push as expected
• Confirm caching reduces subsequent build times
• Check that deployment only runs on main branch, not PRs
• Verify status checks block PR merge when tests fail

Quality Criteria

• CI runs lint, test, and build on every PR
• Dependency caching configured to reduce build times
• Secrets stored in GitHub settings, never in workflow YAML
• Deployment requires manual approval for production environment
• Evidence tags applied to all claims

Anti-Patterns

• Hardcoding secrets in workflow files (use GitHub Secrets)
• Not caching dependencies (doubles build time unnecessarily)
• Running deployments on every push without environment protection

Related Skills

• firebase-deployment — Firebase deploy steps in GitHub Actions
• linting-formatting — lint step in CI pipeline

Usage

Example invocations:

• "/github-actions-ci" — Run the full github actions ci workflow
• "github actions ci on this project" — Apply to current context

Assumptions & Limits

• Assumes access to project artifacts (code, docs, configs) [EXPLICIT]
• Requires English-language output unless otherwise specified [EXPLICIT]
• Does not replace domain expert judgment for final decisions [EXPLICIT]

Edge Cases

Scenario	Handling
Empty or minimal input	Request clarification before proceeding
Conflicting requirements	Flag conflicts explicitly, propose resolution
Out-of-scope request	Redirect to appropriate skill or escalate