github-actions-template

name	github-actions-template
description	GitHub Actions CI pipeline templates and workflow YAML patterns. TRIGGER when: creating or editing a CI workflow, adding a CI job, or wiring build/test/deploy steps. SKIP: container build internals (use docker-templates); local git workflow (use git-operations).

Standard CI Pipeline

name: CI

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

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint

  type-check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run type-check

  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test

  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [lint, type-check, test]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: build
          path: dist/

Pipeline Stages

Stage	Purpose	Failure Action
Lint	Code style enforcement	Block merge
Type-check	TypeScript validation	Block merge
Test	Unit/integration tests	Block merge
Build	Production build	Block merge
Deploy (staging)	Preview deployment	Warn only
Deploy (prod)	Production release	Manual approval

Environment Management

Environment	Branch	Auto-deploy	Approval
Development	feature/*	No	None
Staging	develop	Yes	None
Production	main	Yes	Required

Secrets Management

# GitHub Secrets (never in code)
env:
  DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}
  API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}

# Environment files (local only)
# .env.local - Never committed
# .env.example - Template only, no real values

Deployment Strategies

Strategy	Use When	Rollback
Blue-Green	Zero downtime critical	Switch back to previous env
Canary	Risk mitigation, gradual rollout	Route 100% to old version
Rolling	Resource constrained, stateless apps	Slower, redeploy previous

Rollback Triggers

Automated rollback when:

• Health check failures after deploy
• Error rate spike > 5%
• Response time degradation
• Memory/CPU threshold breach

Requirements: Keep N-1 version deployable, backward-compatible DB migrations, feature flags for risky changes.

Quality Gates

Stage	Threshold
Unit tests	100% pass, > 70% coverage
Lint/Format	Zero errors
Security scan	No critical vulnerabilities
Build	Compiles without errors

Pipeline Optimization Targets

Stage	Target Time
Build	< 5 min
Unit tests	< 5 min
Integration tests	< 10 min
Full pipeline	< 30 min

Parallelize independent stages. Cache dependencies. Use incremental builds.

Bundled References

Usable workflow templates in references/ based on actual project CI:

File	Description
references/ci-template.yml	Full CI pipeline with path filtering, backend (Python) + frontend (TS), SonarQube

Template uses self-hosted runner, dorny/paths-filter for conditional jobs, and artifact uploads for coverage. Adapt paths and language versions for new projects.