🚀 Project CI/CD Pipeline

This repository serves as a GitHub template repository for implementing robust CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions. It supports trunk-based development, ephemeral environments for feature branches, automated testing, and production releases via semantic versioning.

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🧠 Development Philosophy

🌳 Trunk-Based Development

We follow Trunk-Based Development, where:

• All developers branch off from main using short-lived feature branches (feat/**, feature/**, JIRA/**).
• Changes are integrated into main frequently to reduce integration risk.
• Feature branches are merged quickly via pull requests after passing tests.
• Long-lived branches are avoided in favor of continuous integration and visibility.

🧪 Test-Driven Development (TDD)

We encourage Test-Driven Development, where:

• Tests are written before code implementation.
• Each change must include associated unit/integration tests.
• Code is not merged unless it passes all automated checks.
• This ensures correctness, reliability, and confidence in continuous delivery.

🌐 Ephemeral Environments

Ephemeral environments are temporary, isolated environments automatically created for each feature branch. These allow developers to develop on a feature without affecting other features.

Benefits:

• Provides a separate environment for each feature development with seed data that mirrors production, ensuring no contention between shared environments.
• Ensures respect for production data and user privacy, as the data in ephemeral environments is isolated.
• Keeps production and pre-production environments pristine, ensuring they are utilized only for dedicated testing, staging, and serving users.

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🔁 Sample CI/CD Workflow

1. 🪄 Create Feature Branch

   Actions:

   • Developer creates a branch from main, e.g., feat/user-auth

   Workflow:

   • An Ephemeral Development Environment is automatically provisioned for the feature branch
   • Developers can manually trigger the Feature Branch CI workflow to reset the ephemeral environment.

2. 🧱 Develop on Feature Branch
   Actions:

   • Developer commits changes to the feature branch

   Workflow:

   • Linting and unit tests are automatically run on every commit to the feature branch

3. 🔄 Create Merge Request (MR) Action:

   • Developer opens a pull request (PR) targeting main

   Workflow:

   • Integration tests are automatically executed in the ephemeral environment to validate the feature integration before allowing merge

4. ✅ Merge to Main (after tests & approval) Action

   • Maintainers approve the PR
   • Developer merges the PR into main

   Workflow:

   • After merging, the ephemeral environment is automatically destroyed

5. 🏷️ Tagging & Deployment of Release Candidate Action:

   • Maintainer tags the latest commit as a release candidate (e.g., v1.2.3-rc)

   Workflow:

   • Release candidate is deployed to the pre-production environment
   • Functional and E2E tests are conducted on pre-production
   • If all tests pass, the release candidate is promoted to an official release with an official tag (e.g., v1.2.3)

6. 🚀 Trigger Production Deployment Action:

   • Maintainer manually triggers the production deployment from the official tag Workflow:
   • Version is deployed to the production environment
   • Functional and E2E tests are conducted on production

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📁 Workflow Files

Workflow File	Trigger Condition	Purpose
.github/workflows/ci-feature-branch.yml	Push or manual trigger from feat/**, feature/**, or JIRA/** branches	Linting, unit tests, and ephemeral environment creation
.github/workflows/ci-merge-request.yml	Pull request to main	Integration tests before merging
.github/workflows/ci-post-merge.yml	PR to main is closed and merged	Teardown of ephemeral environments
.github/workflows/preprod-release.yml	Creation of release candidate tags e.g. v1.0.0-rc	Deploys preproduction, run post-deploy tests and creation of official versions
.github/workflows/prd-release.yml	Manual trigger on official version tags like v1.0.0	Deploys production and runs post-deploy tests

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🛠 Technologies

• Node.js 20.x
• GitHub Actions for CI/CD
• npm for dependency management and testing

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🔄 Branching Strategy

• Feature Branches: Follow naming patterns feat/**, feature/**, or JIRA/**.
• Main Branch: The trunk branch; all releases and integrations occur here.
• Tags: Use semantic versioning (vX.Y.Z) to trigger production deployments.

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📦 Key Scripts (in package.json)

Script	Description
npm run lint	Static code analysis
npm run test	Runs unit tests
npm run build	(Optional) Build your app

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✅ Contribution Guidelines

• Write tests first (TDD).
• Keep feature branches short-lived.
• Ensure workflows pass before merging PRs.
• Use meaningful commit messages and tag versions appropriately.

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.