Easy Setup CI/CD

Set up a complete CI/CD pipeline with build automation, testing, quality gates, deployment strategies, and monitoring integration for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Azure Pipelines.

When to Use This Command

Run this command when...

• You are setting up automated build, test, and deployment workflows for a new or existing project
• You need GitHub Actions workflows, GitLab CI pipelines, or Azure Pipelines configurations generated from scratch
• You want quality gates including linting, security scanning, and code coverage thresholds in your pipeline
• You need deployment automation with blue-green, canary, or rolling deployment strategies
• You want secrets management, environment provisioning, and approval workflows integrated into your pipeline

Quick Start

Copy
# .claude/commands/easy-setup-ci-cd.yaml
name: Easy Setup CI/CD
description: Setup comprehensive CI/CD pipeline with deployment automation
inputs:
  - name: platform
    description: "github-actions, gitlab-ci, or azure-pipelines"
    default: "github-actions"

Copy
# Setup GitHub Actions CI/CD
claude "easy-setup-ci-cd --platform github-actions"

# Setup with specific deployment target
claude "easy-setup-ci-cd --platform github-actions --deploy vercel --env staging,production"

Output:
  [detect] Repository: GitHub (origin: github.com/org/repo)
  [detect] Stack: Node.js 20, React, PostgreSQL
  [create] .github/workflows/ci.yml (lint, test, build)
  [create] .github/workflows/deploy-staging.yml
  [create] .github/workflows/deploy-production.yml
  [config] Quality gates: coverage > 80%, 0 lint errors
  [config] Deploy: Vercel preview on PR, production on main
  Done. 3 workflow files created. Push to activate.

Core Concepts

Concept	Description
Pipeline Architecture	Multi-stage pipeline: install, lint, test, build, deploy with parallel job execution
Quality Gates	Automated checks that block deployment: test pass rate, coverage thresholds, lint results, security scans
Deployment Strategies	Blue-green (zero downtime), canary (gradual rollout), or rolling deployments with rollback triggers
Environment Management	Separate staging and production pipelines with environment-specific secrets and configurations
Approval Workflows	Required manual approvals before production deployments with notification to designated reviewers

Pipeline Flow:
  Push/PR
    │
  ┌─▼──────┐   ┌────────┐   ┌────────┐   ┌────────┐
  │Install  │──>│  Lint  │──>│  Test  │──>│ Build  │
  │  Deps   │   │& Format│   │& Cover │   │Artifact│
  └─────────┘   └────────┘   └────────┘   └───┬────┘
                                               │
                              ┌────────────────┤
                              ▼                ▼
                         ┌─────────┐     ┌──────────┐
                         │ Staging │────>│Production│
                         │ Deploy  │     │ (Approve)│
                         └─────────┘     └──────────┘

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
platform	string	"github-actions"	CI/CD platform: github-actions, gitlab-ci, or azure-pipelines
deploy	string	""	Deployment target: vercel, aws, gcp, netlify, or docker registry
env	string	"staging,production"	Comma-separated environment names to create pipelines for
coverage	integer	80	Minimum code coverage percentage required to pass quality gate
strategy	string	"rolling"	Deployment strategy: rolling, blue-green, or canary

Best Practices

1. Start with CI before CD -- Get your build and test pipeline green before adding deployment automation. A deployment pipeline built on unreliable tests creates false confidence.
2. Cache dependencies aggressively -- Configure npm, pip, or cargo caching in your pipeline to reduce build times from minutes to seconds on repeated runs.
3. Use matrix builds for cross-version testing -- Test against multiple Node.js, Python, or runtime versions to catch compatibility issues before users report them.
4. Require staging deployment before production -- Never deploy directly to production. The pipeline should enforce staging deployment and verification as a prerequisite.
5. Store secrets in the platform's vault -- Use GitHub Secrets, GitLab CI variables, or Azure Key Vault. Never hardcode credentials in pipeline configuration files.

Common Issues

1. Workflow not triggering -- GitHub Actions workflows must be in .github/workflows/ on the default branch to be recognized. Push the workflow files to main first.
2. Secrets not available in pull requests -- For security, most CI platforms do not expose secrets to pull requests from forks. Use a separate workflow for community contributions.
3. Build cache not working -- Cache keys must match exactly. If dependencies change but the cache key does not, stale caches produce build failures. Include lock file hashes in cache keys.