CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Deployment) pipelines automate the process of building, testing, and deploying code, enabling teams to release software faster and more reliably. A pipeline orchestrates a series of automated stages—from code commit through production deployment—ensuring consistent quality checks at every step. Pipelines transform software delivery from manual, error-prone releases into predictable, repeatable workflows that can execute hundreds of times per day. The key mental model: pipelines are declarative workflows that move code from source to production through automated quality gates, where each stage validates the change before it proceeds; in 2026, security scanning, supply chain integrity, and AI-assisted optimization have become first-class pipeline concerns alongside speed and reliability.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 18 focused tables and 145 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
Table 1: Core Pipeline Stages
| Stage | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
on: push branches: [main] | Foundation stage that triggers the pipeline when code is committed to version control, starting the automation workflow. | |
npm run builddocker build -t app:${VERSION} . | • Compiles source code into executable artifacts • performs dependency resolution, transpilation, or containerization. | |
npm testpytest tests/ | Executes automated tests (unit, integration, E2E) to validate code behavior and catch regressions early. | |
semgrep scan --config autotrivy image app:latest | • Runs SAST, SCA, and container scans as a dedicated pipeline stage • shift-left approach catches vulnerabilities at the cheapest moment. |