GitHub Actions Pipeline Creator

Build production-ready GitHub Actions workflows with best practices.

Basic CI Workflow

.github/workflows/ci.yml

name: CI

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

Cancel in-progress runs for same workflow

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

jobs: lint: name: Lint runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Setup Node.js
    uses: actions/setup-node@v4
    with:
      node-version: "20"
      cache: "npm"

  - name: Install dependencies
    run: npm ci

  - name: Run ESLint
    run: npm run lint

  - name: Run Prettier
    run: npm run format:check

  - name: Run TypeScript
    run: npm run type-check

test: name: Test runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Setup Node.js
    uses: actions/setup-node@v4
    with:
      node-version: "20"
      cache: "npm"

  - name: Install dependencies
    run: npm ci

  - name: Run tests
    run: npm test -- --coverage

  - name: Upload coverage
    uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
    with:
      files: ./coverage/coverage-final.json
      flags: unittests
      fail_ci_if_error: true

build: name: Build runs-on: ubuntu-latest needs: [lint, test] steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Setup Node.js
    uses: actions/setup-node@v4
    with:
      node-version: "20"
      cache: "npm"

  - name: Install dependencies
    run: npm ci

  - name: Build
    run: npm run build
    env:
      NODE_ENV: production

  - name: Upload build artifacts
    uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
    with:
      name: dist
      path: dist/
      retention-days: 7

Matrix Strategy

test: name: Test runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }} strategy: matrix: os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest] node-version: [18, 20, 21] exclude: # Skip Windows + Node 18 (slow) - os: windows-latest node-version: 18 fail-fast: false

steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

- name: Setup Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
  uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
    cache: "npm"

- run: npm ci
- run: npm test

Advanced Caching

• name: Cache dependencies uses: actions/cache@v3 with: path: | ~/.npm node_modules .next/cache key: ${{ runner.os }}-npm-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }} restore-keys: | ${{ runner.os }}-npm-

• name: Cache build uses: actions/cache@v3 with: path: | dist .cache key: build-${{ github.sha }} restore-keys: | build-

Docker Build & Push

docker: name: Build & Push Docker runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

- name: Set up Docker Buildx
  uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3

- name: Login to Docker Hub
  uses: docker/login-action@v3
  with:
    username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}

- name: Extract metadata
  id: meta
  uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
  with:
    images: mycompany/myapp
    tags: |
      type=ref,event=branch
      type=ref,event=pr
      type=semver,pattern={{version}}
      type=sha

- name: Build and push
  uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
  with:
    context: .
    push: true
    tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
    labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
    cache-from: type=registry,ref=mycompany/myapp:buildcache
    cache-to: type=registry,ref=mycompany/myapp:buildcache,mode=max

Deployment Workflow

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: Deploy

on: push: branches: [main] workflow_dispatch: inputs: environment: description: "Environment to deploy to" required: true type: choice options: - staging - production

jobs: deploy: name: Deploy to ${{ github.event.inputs.environment || 'staging' }} runs-on: ubuntu-latest environment: name: ${{ github.event.inputs.environment || 'staging' }} url: https://${{ steps.deploy.outputs.url }}

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Download artifacts
    uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
    with:
      name: dist
      path: dist/

  - name: Deploy to Vercel
    id: deploy
    uses: amondnet/vercel-action@v25
    with:
      vercel-token: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
      vercel-org-id: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
      vercel-project-id: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
      vercel-args: ${{ github.event.inputs.environment == 'production' && '--prod' || '' }}

Failure Diagnostics

• name: Run tests id: test run: npm test continue-on-error: true

• name: Upload test results if: always() uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: test-results path: | test-results/ coverage/

• name: Comment PR with results if: failure() && github.event_name == 'pull_request' uses: actions/github-script@v7 with: script: | github.rest.issues.createComment({ issue_number: context.issue.number, owner: context.repo.owner, repo: context.repo.repo, body: '❌ Tests failed. Check the [test results](${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }})' })

• name: Fail if tests failed if: steps.test.outcome == 'failure' run: exit 1

Composite Actions

.github/actions/setup-node/action.yml

name: "Setup Node.js with Cache" description: "Setup Node.js and restore cache"

inputs: node-version: description: "Node.js version" required: false default: "20"

runs: using: "composite" steps: - name: Setup Node.js uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: ${{ inputs.node-version }} cache: "npm"

- name: Install dependencies
  shell: bash
  run: npm ci

Usage in workflow:

- uses: ./.github/actions/setup-node

with:

node-version: '20'

Conditional Jobs

lint: if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: [...]

deploy: if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push' needs: [build, test] runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: [...]

Best Practices

• Cache dependencies: Speeds up 3-5x

• Parallel jobs: Run lint/test/build concurrently

• Matrix strategy: Test multiple versions/platforms

• Fail fast: Stop on first failure (or not)

• Upload artifacts: Debug failures

• Concurrency control: Cancel outdated runs

• Secrets management: Never log secrets

• Status checks: Require passing CI

Output Checklist

• Lint job configured

• Test job with coverage

• Build job with artifacts

• Deploy job with environments

• Caching strategy implemented

• Matrix builds (if needed)

• Failure diagnostics

• PR comments on failure

• Docker build (if needed)

• Status badges in README