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.