google-cicd-release-orchestration

name	google-cicd-release-orchestration
description	Use this skill when you need to design Cloud Deploy delivery pipelines or manage releases for applications deploying to Cloud Run or Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). This skill encodes best practices for multi-environment deployment, deployment strategies (like canary), and release management (including rollbacks and automations). Always activate this skill for these tasks to ensure robust and consistent configuration.
version	0.1.0

Cloud Deploy Pipelines

Overview

This skill encompasses the entire lifecycle of Cloud Deploy for a user, from designing and creating delivery pipelines to managing releases and debugging release failures.

All Workflows require the clouddeploy.googleapis.com API to be enabled.

Workflow: Designing a Pipeline

This workflow provides steps for designing a Cloud Deploy DeliveryPipeline.

Constraints & Rules

1. NO PLACEHOLDERS: Never generate YAML with placeholders like <PROJECT_ID>. Ask the user for values first.
2. Context First: Always check existing files and conversation context before asking.
3. Step-by-Step: Perform the steps one at a time. The goal is to guide the user through designing a delivery pipeline.

Step 0: Prerequisites

Required Context: Before generating ANY configuration for this workflow, you MUST have the following values. Ask the user strictly for any missing information:

• Project ID: The Google Cloud project ID for the Cloud Deploy resources.
• Region: The region for the Cloud Deploy resources (e.g., us-central1).
• Application Name: The name of the application that will be deployed. Use the application name to generate the names of the Cloud Deploy resources, such as DeliveryPipeline and Target resources.
• Runtime: Either Cloud Run or Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).
  • If Cloud Run: The Cloud Run project and location.
  • If GKE: The GKE cluster name.

Step 1: Define the target environments

1. Identify the number of deployment environments (e.g., dev, staging, production).
2. Identify if promotions should require user approval.
3. Define each of the deployment environments as Cloud Deploy Target resources in a clouddeploy.yaml file.
   • Use references/configure-targets.md as a reference when generating the resource YAML.
   • Always prefix target IDs with the application name provided by the user (e.g., [app-name]-[env]) to prevent resource name collisions when multiple applications are deployed to different environments. For example, if the user wants to deploy an application named "hello-world" to test and prod environments, then use "hello-world-test" and "hello-world-prod" as the Target IDs.

Step 2: Define the delivery pipeline

1. Identify whether the user wants to use a canary deployment strategy for any of the target environments.
2. Define the Cloud Deploy DeliveryPipeline in the clouddeploy.yaml file.
   • Use references/configure-pipelines.md as a reference when generating the resource YAML.
   • Use application name as the DeliveryPipeline ID.

Step 3: Define automations

1. Identify whether the user wants to automatically rollback if any failures occur during the rollout.
2. If the user specified multiple deployment environments in the previous step

• Identify if they want automatic promotions between deployment environments.

3. If the user specified a canary deployment strategy in the previous step

• Identify if they want to automatically advance the rollout through the phases after a wait period.

4. Define the Cloud Deploy Automation resources in the clouddeploy.yaml file.

• Use references/configure-automations.md as a reference when generating the resource YAML.

Step 4: Validate the clouddeploy.yaml file

Ensure that the clouddeploy.yaml file is valid. See https://docs.cloud.google.com/deploy/docs/config-files for the schema.

Step 5: Create the delivery pipeline

Run the following command to create the Cloud Deploy DeliveryPipeline and associated resources, using the values collected in Step 0:

gcloud deploy apply --file=clouddeploy.yaml --region=<REGION> --project=<PROJECT_ID>

Step 6: Create a skaffold.yaml file and runtime manifests

Required Context: Before generating a skaffold.yaml file, you MUST know if the user has manifests for the runtime they are deploying to.

1. If the user does not have runtime manifests: Generate some basic ones based on the runtime.
   • If Cloud Run: Generate a Cloud Run manifest. Use references/basic-cloudrun-manifests.md as a reference.
   • If GKE: Generate a Kubernetes Deployment and Servicemanifest. Use references/basic-k8s-manifests.md as a reference.
2. Create a skaffold.yaml file required to create a Cloud Deploy Release for the DeliveryPipeline.
   • Use references/configure-skaffold.md as a reference when generating the skaffold.yaml file.
   • For multi-environment pipelines: You must define a Skaffold profile for each Cloud Deploy target environment, named to match the target ID exactly. Do NOT use generic names like 'staging' or 'prod' for profile names unless they match the target IDs.

Step 7: Setup IAM permissions

Use references/iam-permissions.md as a reference to set up the necessary IAM permissions based on the DeliveryPipeline defined.

Workflow: Add Google Observability Alert Policy Analysis to a Pipeline

Cloud Deploy integrates with Google Cloud Observability to provide metrics analysis when deploying an application. When the application is deployed, Cloud Deploy will monitor alert policies defined in Google Cloud Observability for any incidents that were triggered after the application was deployed.

This feature can be used alongside automation to enable automatic rollbacks if the application deployment triggers alert policies.

This section covers how to update the user's DeliveryPipeline to leverage this feature.

Constraints & Rules

A DeliveryPipeline MUST already be defined or being designed in the current context.

Step 0: Prerequisites

Cloud Deploy requires the Google Cloud Observability alerting policies to be defined before they can be referenced in the DeliveryPipeline.

1. Prompt the user whether they have existing alerting policies defined for the application. DO NOT assume that existing alerting policies are applicable to the application being deployed.
2. If the user does not have alerting policies defined for the application, help the user generate them.

• If Cloud Run: Use references/basic-cloudrun-alerts.md as a reference.

Step 1: Update the pipeline definition

1. Identify the duration for which the metrics analysis should run after the application is deployed (e.g., 30 minutes).
2. Identify which alerting policies Cloud Deploy should monitor for incidents.
3. Update the DeliveryPipeline definition in the clouddeploy.yaml file to include analysis configuration.
   • Use references/configure-pipelines.md as a reference when updating the DeliveryPipeline definition.

Step 2: Validate the clouddeploy.yaml file

Ensure that the clouddeploy.yaml file is valid. See https://docs.cloud.google.com/deploy/docs/config-files for the schema.

Step 3: Apply the pipeline changes

Run the following command to update the Cloud Deploy DeliveryPipeline:

gcloud deploy apply --file=clouddeploy.yaml --region=<REGION> --project=<PROJECT_ID>

Step 4: Setup IAM permissions

Use references/iam-permissions.md as a reference to set up the necessary IAM permissions for analysis.

Release Management

This section covers the various aspects of managing Cloud Deploy Release resources.

Constraints & Rules

In order to manage releases, a DeliveryPipeline MUST already be defined and configured in Cloud Deploy. Determine whether a delivery pipeline is defined by checking for a clouddeploy.yaml file and checking if the resources exist in Cloud Deploy or ask the user directly.

Required Context:

• Project ID: The Google Cloud project ID of the DeliveryPipeline.
• Region: The region of the DeliveryPipeline (e.g., us-central1).
• Delivery Pipeline ID: The DeliveryPipeline ID.

Create a release

Use case: The user wants to deploy a new version of their application.

Required Context: Before creating a Release, you MUST know whether the users runtime manifests are using a placeholder for the container image and the value of the placeholder. This is CRITICAL for build artifact substitution in Cloud Deploy. Check the users runtime manifests or ask the user directly. See examples in references/basic-cloudrun-manifests.md and references/basic-k8s-manifests.md.

Run the following command to create a Release for the DeliveryPipeline:

gcloud deploy releases create release-$DATE-$TIME --delivery-pipeline=<DELIVERY_PIPELINE_ID> --region=<REGION> --project=<PROJECT_ID>

If the user is leveraging build artifact substitution with a placeholder in the image field of the runtime manifests then use the --images flag:

gcloud deploy releases create release-$DATE-$TIME --delivery-pipeline=<DELIVERY_PIPELINE_ID> --region=<REGION> --project=<PROJECT_ID> --images <IMAGE_PLACEHOLDER>=<IMAGE_URI>

CRITICAL: If the skaffold.yaml is not in the current directory, use the --source flag to specify the directory where the skaffold.yaml file is located.

Reference documenation for gcloud deploy releases create: https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/deploy/releases/create.

Promote a release

Use case: The user wants to promote the application to the next target environment in the DeliveryPipeline progression sequence.

Run the following command to promote a Release to the next target in the DeliveryPipeline progression sequence:

gcloud deploy promote --release=<RELEASE_ID> --delivery-pipeline=<DELIVERY_PIPELINE_ID> --region=<REGION> --project=<PROJECT_ID>

TIP: Use a short <RELEASE_ID> since the command will auto-generate a Rollout ID (with a 63 character limit) in the format: <RELEASE_ID>-to-<TARGET_ID>.

Reference documentation for gcloud deploy releases promote: https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/deploy/releases/promote.

Monitor a release

Use case: Monitor the status of a release across a DeliveryPipeline.

Monitoring a release across a DeliveryPipeline consists of checking the status of both the Release resource and its child Rollout resource(s). Always ensure that the Release has completed successfully before checking the status of the Rollout.

Troubleshoot

Release failed

Get the release to determine which of the target renders failed and inspect the failure message and failure cause. Additionally the target renders contain a Cloud Build reference where the target render was executed. Retrieve the build logs to determine the root cause of the failure.

Rollout failed

Get the rollout to determine which of the jobs failed and inspect the failure message and failure cause. Additionally the Rollout contains a Cloud Build reference where the failed job was executed. Retrieve the build logs to determine the root cause of the failure.