CI/CD Expert

Create, debug, and optimize CI/CD pipelines across platforms.

Platform Selection

Platform Best For Key Strength

GitHub Actions GitHub repos, open source Marketplace, native integration

GitLab CI GitLab repos, self-hosted Built-in registry, Auto DevOps

CircleCI Complex workflows, speed Parallelism, orbs

Azure DevOps Microsoft/enterprise Azure integration, YAML templates

Bitbucket Atlassian stack Jira integration, pipes

Key Principles

• Security first: Never expose secrets in logs, use environment-specific secrets

• Reliability: Idempotent steps, deterministic builds, pinned dependency versions

• Efficiency: Cache aggressively, parallelize independent jobs, skip unchanged paths

• Maintainability: DRY with reusable workflows/templates, clear naming

Quick Start Checklist

• Choose platform based on repository hosting

• Create pipeline with lint → test → build → deploy stages

• Configure secrets and environment variables

• Set up caching for dependencies and build artifacts

• Add deployment strategy (blue-green recommended for production)

• Review security checklist before going live

References

Reference Description

github-actions-basics.md Workflows, triggers, jobs, steps, services

github-actions-advanced.md Reusable workflows, composite actions, security, complete example

gitlab-ci-basics.md Pipeline structure, triggers, jobs, caching, artifacts, variables

gitlab-ci-advanced.md Templates, includes, rules, Docker-in-Docker, security scanning

circleci-basics.md Config structure, executors, jobs, commands, caching, artifacts

circleci-advanced.md Workflows, orbs, conditionals, Docker builds, complete example

azure-devops-basics.md Pipeline structure, triggers, agents, variables, tasks, caching

azure-devops-advanced.md Templates, environments, deployments, conditions, containers

bitbucket-pipelines-basics.md Pipeline types, steps, caching, artifacts, variables

bitbucket-pipelines-advanced.md Pipes, Docker, YAML anchors, deployments, complete example

deployment-strategies-blue-green-canary.md Blue-green and canary deployments with K8s and AWS examples

deployment-strategies-rolling-flags-rollback.md Rolling deploys, feature flags, rollback, health checks

debugging-error-categories.md Environment, permission, network, resource, timing, cache, Docker errors

debugging-platform-fixes.md Platform-specific debugging, common fix patterns, quick reference

security-checklist.md Secrets, permissions, supply chain security