CI/CD

CI/CD chains together two related practices:

• Continuous Integration (CI) - every push to a shared branch triggers an automated build and test run, so problems surface within minutes of being introduced rather than at the end of a release cycle.
• Continuous Delivery (CD) - every commit that passes CI is built into a deployable artefact and held ready to ship. A human approves the actual release.
• Continuous Deployment - the same as Continuous Delivery, except passing tests are enough; releases happen automatically.

The distinction between Delivery and Deployment is small but important. Continuous Deployment requires a level of test coverage, observability, and rollback automation most teams do not have. Continuous Delivery is achievable for almost any team and gives you most of the benefit.

Common CI/CD platforms include GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, Buildkite, Argo Workflows, and Azure Pipelines. The platform matters less than the discipline of keeping the pipeline fast, deterministic, and trustworthy.