GitHub Actions CI/CD Tutorial

Complete guide to workflow automation with GitHub Actions - from zero to production-ready pipelines.

Tutorial Article

Read the full tutorial at: CrashBytes - GitHub Actions CI/CD Complete Guide

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/CrashBytes/crashbytes-tutorial-github-actions-ci-cd.git
cd crashbytes-tutorial-github-actions-ci-cd

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests
npm test

# Run linting
npm run lint

# Start the application
npm start

Project Structure

.
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── ci.yml                    # Basic CI workflow
│       ├── cd-staging.yml            # Staging deployment
│       ├── cd-production.yml         # Production deployment
│       ├── docker-build.yml          # Docker image builds
│       ├── matrix-testing.yml        # Matrix test strategy
│       └── reusable-workflow.yml     # Reusable workflow template
├── src/
│   ├── index.js                      # Application entry point
│   ├── utils.js                      # Utility functions
│   └── api.js                        # API handlers
├── tests/
│   └── index.test.js                 # Unit tests
├── Dockerfile                        # Container definition
├── package.json                      # Dependencies and scripts
└── README.md                         # This file

Workflows Included

1. Continuous Integration (ci.yml)

• Code linting with ESLint
• Unit testing with Jest
• Coverage report generation
• Build verification

2. Matrix Testing (matrix-testing.yml)

• Tests across Node.js 18, 20, 22
• Tests on Ubuntu, Windows, macOS
• Parallel execution for speed

3. Docker Build (docker-build.yml)

• Multi-stage Docker builds
• GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io) publishing
• Automatic semantic versioning tags

4. Staging Deployment (cd-staging.yml)

• Triggered on develop branch pushes
• Environment-specific configuration
• Post-deployment notifications

5. Production Deployment (cd-production.yml)

• Triggered on GitHub releases
• Pre-deployment validation
• Manual approval gates (configure in repo settings)
• Deployment summaries

6. Reusable Workflow (reusable-workflow.yml)

• Parameterized Node.js version
• Optional coverage generation
• Configurable working directory
• Output test results

Available Scripts

Command	Description
npm start	Run the application
npm test	Run unit tests
npm run test:coverage	Run tests with coverage
npm run lint	Check code style
npm run lint:fix	Auto-fix style issues
npm run build	Lint and test

Required Secrets

For full functionality, configure these secrets in your repository:

Secret	Description	Required For
GITHUB_TOKEN	Auto-provided by GitHub	Docker builds
STAGING_DEPLOY_TOKEN	Staging environment credentials	Staging deploys
PRODUCTION_DEPLOY_TOKEN	Production environment credentials	Production deploys

What You'll Learn

1. GitHub Actions Fundamentals - Workflows, jobs, steps, events
2. CI Pipeline Design - Testing, linting, building
3. Matrix Strategies - Multi-version, multi-OS testing
4. Caching - Dependency and build caching
5. Docker Integration - Build and push container images
6. Deployment Automation - Staging and production pipelines
7. Secrets Management - Secure credential handling
8. Reusable Workflows - DRY pipeline configuration

Contributing

This is a tutorial repository. Feel free to:

• Open issues for questions
• Submit PRs for improvements
• Fork for your own learning

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

Links

• Tutorial Article
• GitHub Actions Documentation
• CrashBytes Blog

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Author: CrashBytes
Published: November 24, 2025