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CI/CD Implementation ​

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment practices at Synapse Studios

Related Concepts: Continuous Integration | Continuous Delivery

Overview ​

Our CI/CD practices implement the deployment pipeline pattern from Continuous Delivery, ensuring code quality, automated testing, and reliable deployments across all projects. We use GitHub Actions to orchestrate multi-stage pipelines that provide fast feedback while maintaining high confidence in production readiness.

Available Guides ​

Multi-Stage CI/CD Pipeline with GitHub Actions ​

Complete guide to implementing deployment pipelines with GitHub Actions:

  • Four-stage pipeline architecture (commit, build, acceptance, deploy)
  • Reusable workflows pattern with workflow_call
  • Stage orchestration using needs keyword
  • Build Once, Deploy Everywhere pattern
  • Artifact management and versioning
  • Real-world examples from production systems
  • Pull request workflow implementation

Deploying to AWS ECS with GitHub Actions ​

Comprehensive guide to ECS deployments with colocated task definitions:

  • Task definitions colocated with service code (version controlled)
  • Terraform manages infrastructure, CI/CD manages deployments
  • Render pattern for updating task definitions
  • Database migrations as one-off tasks
  • Blue-green vs rolling deployment strategies
  • Cross-account deployment patterns
  • CodeDeploy integration for zero-downtime deployments

Core Principles ​

Automation First ​

  • Every manual process should be automated
  • Consistency through automation
  • Reduced human error

Fast Feedback ​

  • Quick build times
  • Parallel test execution
  • Early failure detection

Progressive Deployment ​

  • Environment promotion (dev → staging → production)
  • Feature flags for gradual rollouts
  • Rollback capabilities

Security by Default ​

  • Automated security scanning
  • Dependency vulnerability checks
  • Secret management
  • Compliance validation

Pipeline Stages ​

1. Build & Validate ​

  • Code compilation
  • Linting and formatting
  • Type checking
  • Unit tests

2. Test & Analyze ​

  • Integration tests
  • E2E tests
  • Code coverage
  • Static analysis

3. Package & Scan ​

  • Container building
  • Security scanning
  • License compliance
  • Artifact storage

4. Deploy & Monitor ​

  • Environment deployment
  • Smoke tests
  • Performance monitoring
  • Alerting setup

Technology Stack ​

Version Control ​

  • GitHub (primary)
  • GitLab (alternative)

CI/CD Platforms ​

  • GitHub Actions
  • CircleCI
  • Jenkins (legacy)

Container Registries ​

  • AWS ECR
  • Docker Hub
  • GitHub Container Registry

Deployment Targets ​

  • AWS ECS/EKS
  • Vercel
  • Netlify
  • Traditional VMs

Best Practices ​

Pipeline as Code ​

  • Version control all pipeline configurations
  • Use reusable workflow templates
  • Environment-specific configurations

Fail Fast ​

  • Run fastest tests first
  • Parallel execution where possible
  • Clear failure messages

Observability ​

  • Pipeline metrics and dashboards
  • Deployment tracking
  • Performance trends