ancoleman/building-ci-pipelines
Constructs secure, efficient CI/CD pipelines with supply chain security (SLSA), monorepo optimization, caching strategies, and parallelization patterns for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Argo Workflows. Use when setting up automated testing, building, or deployment workflows.
npx skills add https://github.com/ancoleman/ai-design-components --skill building-ci-pipelines
CI/CD pipelines automate testing, building, and deploying software. This skill provides patterns for constructing robust, secure, and efficient pipelines across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Argo Workflows, and Jenkins. Focus areas: supply chain security (SLSA), monorepo optimization, caching, and parallelization.
Invoke when:
GitHub-hosted → GitHub Actions (SLSA native, 10K+ actions, OIDC)
GitLab-hosted → GitLab CI (parent-child pipelines, built-in security)
Kubernetes → Argo Workflows (DAG-based, event-driven)
Legacy → Jenkins (migrate when possible)
| Feature | GitHub Actions | GitLab CI | Argo | Jenkins |
|---------|---------------|-----------|------|---------|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
| SLSA | Native | Manual | Good | Manual |
| Monorepo | Good | Excellent | Manual | Plugins |
# GitHub Actions
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
lint:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- run: npm run lint
test:
needs: lint
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- run: npm test
build:
needs: test
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- run: npm run build
test:
runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
strategy:
matrix:
os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
node-version: [18, 20, 22]
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
- run: npm test
9 jobs (3 OS × 3 versions) in parallel: 5 min vs 45 min sequential.
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0 # Required for affected detection
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: 20
- name: Build affected
run: npx turbo run build --filter='...[origin/main]'
env:
TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}
60-80% CI time reduction for monorepos.
name: SLSA Build
on:
push:
tags: ['v*']
permissions:
id-token: write
contents: read
packages: write
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
outputs:
digest: ${{ steps.build.outputs.digest }}
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Build container
id: build
uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
with:
push: true
tags: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:${{ github.sha }}
provenance:
needs: build
permissions:
id-token: write
actions: read
packages: write
uses: slsa-framework/slsa-github-generator/.github/workflows/[email protected]
with:
image: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}
digest: ${{ needs.build.outputs.digest }}
registry-username: ${{ github.actor }}
secrets:
registry-password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
Verification:
cosign verify-attestation --type slsaprovenance \
--certificate-identity-regexp "^https://github.com/slsa-framework" \
--certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com \
ghcr.io/myorg/myapp@sha256:abcd...
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
permissions:
id-token: write
contents: read
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Configure AWS credentials
uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
with:
role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/GitHubActionsRole
aws-region: us-east-1
- name: Deploy
run: aws s3 sync ./dist s3://my-bucket
Benefits: No stored credentials, 1-hour lifetime, full audit trail.
security:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Gitleaks (secret detection)
uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2
- name: Snyk (vulnerability scan)
uses: snyk/actions/node@master
env:
SNYK_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SNYK_TOKEN }}
- name: SBOM generation
uses: anchore/sbom-action@v0
with:
format: spdx-json
output-file: sbom.spdx.json
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: 20
cache: 'npm' # Auto-caches ~/.npm
- run: npm ci
Supported: npm, yarn, pnpm, pip, poetry, cargo, go
- uses: actions/cache@v4
with:
path: |
~/.cargo/bin
~/.cargo/registry
target/
key: ${{ runner.os }}-cargo-${{ hashFiles('**/Cargo.lock') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-cargo-
- name: Nx Cloud (build outputs)
run: npx nx affected -t build
env:
NX_CLOUD_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NX_CLOUD_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
- name: Vite Cache
uses: actions/cache@v4
with:
path: '**/node_modules/.vite'
key: vite-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
- name: TypeScript Cache
uses: actions/cache@v4
with:
path: '**/tsconfig.tsbuildinfo'
key: tsc-${{ hashFiles('tsconfig.json') }}
Result: 70-90% build time reduction.
jobs:
unit-tests:
steps:
- run: npm run test:unit
integration-tests:
steps:
- run: npm run test:integration
e2e-tests:
steps:
- run: npm run test:e2e
All three run simultaneously.
test:
strategy:
matrix:
shard: [1, 2, 3, 4]
steps:
- run: npm test -- --shard=${{ matrix.shard }}/4
20min test suite → 5min (4x speedup).
test:
strategy:
matrix:
python-version: ['3.10', '3.11', '3.12']
steps:
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
with:
python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
- run: pipx install poetry
- run: poetry install
- run: poetry run ruff check .
- run: poetry run mypy .
- run: poetry run pytest --cov
test:
strategy:
matrix:
os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
rust: [stable, nightly]
steps:
- uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@master
with:
toolchain: ${{ matrix.rust }}
components: rustfmt, clippy
- uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
- run: cargo fmt -- --check
- run: cargo clippy -- -D warnings
- run: cargo test
test:
steps:
- uses: actions/setup-go@v5
with:
go-version: '1.23'
cache: true
- run: go mod verify
- uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v4
- run: go test -v -race -coverprofile=coverage.txt ./...
test:
strategy:
matrix:
node-version: [18, 20, 22]
steps:
- uses: pnpm/action-setup@v3
with:
version: 8
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
cache: 'pnpm'
- run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
- run: pnpm run lint
- run: pnpm run type-check
- run: pnpm test
DO:
actions/checkout@b4ffde65f46336ab88eb53be808477a3936bae11permissions: { contents: read }DON'T:
pull_request_target without validationDO:
strategy.fail-fast: trueDON'T:
# Enable debug logging
env:
ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true
ACTIONS_RUNNER_DEBUG: true
# SSH into runner
- uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3
For detailed guides, see references:
Complete runnable workflows:
Token-free execution:
testing-strategies - Test execution strategies (unit, integration, E2E)
deploying-applications - Deployment automation and GitOps
auth-security - Secrets management and authentication
observability - Pipeline monitoring and alerting
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