Setting Up CI/CD Pipelines: GitHub Actions for APIs

What is CI/CD?

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment automates testing and deployment of your code, ensuring quality and faster releases.

GitHub Actions Workflow

# .github/workflows/ci-cd.yml
name: CI/CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main, develop ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: Setup Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: '18'
    
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm ci
    
    - name: Run tests
      run: npm test
    
    - name: Run linting
      run: npm run lint
  
  build:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: Build Docker image
      run: docker build -t my-api:${{ github.sha }} .
    
    - name: Push to registry
      run: |
        echo "${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}" | docker login -u "${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}" --password-stdin
        docker push my-api:${{ github.sha }}
  
  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    
    steps:
    - name: Deploy to production
      run: |
        kubectl set image deployment/api-deployment api=my-api:${{ github.sha }}

GitLab CI Configuration

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - test
  - build
  - deploy

test:
  stage: test
  image: node:18
  script:
    - npm ci
    - npm test
    - npm run lint

build:
  stage: build
  image: docker:latest
  services:
    - docker:dind
  script:
    - docker build -t $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA .
    - docker push $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  image: bitnami/kubectl:latest
  script:
    - kubectl set image deployment/api-deployment api=$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
  only:
    - main

Jenkins Pipeline

# Jenkinsfile
pipeline {
    agent any
    
    stages {
        stage('Test') {
            steps {
                sh 'npm ci'
                sh 'npm test'
            }
        }
        
        stage('Build') {
            steps {
                sh 'docker build -t my-api:${BUILD_NUMBER} .'
            }
        }
        
        stage('Deploy') {
            steps {
                sh 'kubectl set image deployment/api-deployment api=my-api:${BUILD_NUMBER}'
            }
        }
    }
}

Best Practices

• Run tests before building
• Use semantic versioning
• Tag Docker images with commit SHA
• Deploy only from main branch
• Use secrets for sensitive data
• Implement rollback strategies