Your First GitHub Actions CI/CD Pipeline

A no-fluff guide to setting up merge checks and nightly builds

Book knowledge is amazing.

We read about an exciting new topic, and every new bit of information falls right into place.

It clicks left and right.

Then, you sit in front of your computer, ready to apply your new wisdom, and all of your theoretical knowledge leaves you hanging.

That’s especially true for CI/CD; a topic shrouded in mystery and a true pain to set up with no proper guidance.

So, let’s leave the theory behind and put our CI/CD skills to the test.

Today, you’ll learn continuous integration — for good!

Note: This article is part of a series. If you haven’t read the previous article, please do so, as they build on top of each other:

Version Control, Finally Explained (For Non-Techies)

What Tool to Use?

There is a variety of CI/CD tools available, many of which are free to use.

In the workplace, you’ll probably use powerful tools, such as Jenkins or GitLab.

While GitLab does support interfaces with GitHub, setting the whole thing up is an odyssey unsuitable for beginners.

That’s why I settled for GitHub Actions instead.

GitHub Actions are a tool on GitHub that enables you to automate your software workflows.

The Magic of YAML

YAML is a language several tools use to automate software workflows, e.g., GitLab and GitHub Actions.

YAML is pretty non-cryptic to the human eye, i.e., you can read and learn it rather quickly. No matrix-like green data columns for us.

All you have to do is write a YAML file with the instructions for your software and store it in a specific folder within your repo.

In our tutorial, we will be using this YAML file: