CI/CD Reviewer Skill

Purpose

Reviews CI/CD pipelines for structure, security, optimization, and best practices.

When to Use

• GitHub Actions workflow review
• GitLab CI pipeline review
• Jenkins pipeline review
• Build optimization
• Deployment strategy review

Project Detection

• .github/workflows/*.yml
• .gitlab-ci.yml
• Jenkinsfile
• azure-pipelines.yml
• .circleci/config.yml

Workflow

Step 1: Analyze Project

**Platform**: GitHub Actions
**Triggers**: push, pull_request
**Jobs**: build, test, deploy
**Environments**: staging, production

Step 2: Select Review Areas

AskUserQuestion:

"Which areas to review?"
Options:
- Full CI/CD review (recommended)
- Pipeline structure
- Security and secrets
- Caching and optimization
- Deployment strategy
multiSelect: true

Detection Rules

GitHub Actions

Workflow Structure

Check	Recommendation	Severity
All jobs sequential	Parallelize independent jobs	MEDIUM
No job dependencies	Add needs for proper order	HIGH
Duplicate steps	Extract to composite action	MEDIUM
No concurrency control	Add concurrency group	MEDIUM

# BAD: Sequential, no optimization
name: CI
on: push

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm install
      - run: npm run build
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run lint
      - run: docker build .
      - run: docker push

# GOOD: Parallel jobs with dependencies
name: CI

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

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint

  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

  build:
    needs: [lint, test]  # Run after lint and test pass
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: build
          path: dist/

  deploy:
    needs: build
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment: production
    steps:
      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: build
      - run: ./deploy.sh

Security

Check	Recommendation	Severity
Secrets in plain text	Use secrets context	CRITICAL
No permissions defined	Add explicit permissions	HIGH
Third-party actions unpinned	Pin to SHA	HIGH
No environment protection	Use environments	MEDIUM

# BAD: Security issues
name: Deploy
on: push

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: |
          curl -X POST https://api.example.com \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}"
      - uses: some-org/some-action@main  # Unpinned!

# GOOD: Secure workflow
name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write  # For OIDC

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment: production  # Requires approval
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@b4ffde65f46336ab88eb53be808477a3936bae11 # v4.1.1

      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@e3dd6a429d7300a6a4c196c26e071d42e0343502 # v4.0.2
        with:
          role-to-assume: ${{ secrets.AWS_ROLE_ARN }}
          aws-region: us-east-1

      - name: Deploy
        run: ./deploy.sh
        env:
          DEPLOY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_TOKEN }}

Caching

Check	Recommendation	Severity
No dependency caching	Add cache action	HIGH
No Docker layer cache	Use buildx cache	MEDIUM
Cache key not specific	Include lockfile hash	MEDIUM

# GOOD: Comprehensive caching
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      # Node.js caching
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'

      # Or manual cache
      - uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.npm
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
          restore-keys: |
            ${{ runner.os }}-node-

      # Docker layer caching
      - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3

      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: myapp:latest
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

GitLab CI

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - lint
  - test
  - build
  - deploy

variables:
  NODE_VERSION: "20"

.node_template: &node_template
  image: node:${NODE_VERSION}-alpine
  cache:
    key:
      files:
        - package-lock.json
    paths:
      - node_modules/
  before_script:
    - npm ci --cache .npm --prefer-offline

lint:
  <<: *node_template
  stage: lint
  script:
    - npm run lint

test:
  <<: *node_template
  stage: test
  script:
    - npm test
  coverage: '/Coverage: \d+\.\d+%/'
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: junit.xml
      coverage_report:
        coverage_format: cobertura
        path: coverage/cobertura-coverage.xml

build:
  <<: *node_template
  stage: build
  script:
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/
    expire_in: 1 week

deploy_staging:
  stage: deploy
  environment:
    name: staging
    url: https://staging.example.com
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh staging
  only:
    - main

deploy_production:
  stage: deploy
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://example.com
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh production
  when: manual
  only:
    - main

Deployment Strategies

Check	Recommendation	Severity
Direct to production	Add staging environment	HIGH
No rollback plan	Add rollback mechanism	HIGH
No health checks	Add post-deploy verification	MEDIUM

# Blue-Green / Canary with GitHub Actions
deploy:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  environment: production
  steps:
    - name: Deploy canary (10%)
      run: |
        kubectl set image deployment/app app=myapp:${{ github.sha }}
        kubectl rollout status deployment/app --timeout=5m

    - name: Verify canary
      run: |
        sleep 60
        ./verify-deployment.sh

    - name: Promote to 100%
      if: success()
      run: kubectl scale deployment/app --replicas=10

    - name: Rollback on failure
      if: failure()
      run: kubectl rollout undo deployment/app

Response Template

## CI/CD Review Results

**Project**: [name]
**Platform**: GitHub Actions
**Jobs**: 4 | **Workflows**: 2

### Pipeline Structure
| Status | File | Issue |
|--------|------|-------|
| MEDIUM | ci.yml | All jobs run sequentially |

### Security
| Status | File | Issue |
|--------|------|-------|
| HIGH | deploy.yml | Actions not pinned to SHA |

### Caching
| Status | File | Issue |
|--------|------|-------|
| HIGH | ci.yml | No dependency caching |

### Deployment
| Status | File | Issue |
|--------|------|-------|
| HIGH | deploy.yml | No staging environment |

### Recommended Actions
1. [ ] Parallelize lint and test jobs
2. [ ] Pin all actions to commit SHA
3. [ ] Add npm caching
4. [ ] Add staging deployment step

Best Practices

1. Structure: Parallel jobs, proper dependencies
2. Security: Pin actions, use OIDC, minimal permissions
3. Caching: Cache dependencies and Docker layers
4. Deployment: Staging → Production with approvals
5. Monitoring: Add status checks and notifications

Integration

• docker-reviewer: Container build steps
• k8s-reviewer: Kubernetes deployments
• security-scanner: SAST/DAST in pipeline