CI/CD Pipeline

By Amr

Comprehensive guide to the continuous integration and deployment workflows for the Zer0-Mistakes theme.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Table of Contents

CI/CD Pipeline

The Zer0-Mistakes theme uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration and deployment, automating testing, building, and releasing.

Workflow Overview

graph LR
    A[Push/PR] --> B[CI Tests]
    B --> C{Pass?}
    C -->|Yes| D[Version Bump]
    C -->|No| E[Fix Issues]
    D --> F[Build Gem]
    F --> G[Publish Release]
    G --> H[Deploy Docs]

Available Workflows

Workflow	Trigger	Purpose
ci.yml	Push, PR	Run tests and validations
version-bump.yml	Push to main, Manual	Bump version and tag
release.yml	Tag push	Build and publish gem
codeql.yml	Push, PR, Schedule	Security scanning
update-dependencies.yml	Schedule, Manual	Update Ruby gems
convert-notebooks.yml	Push	Convert Jupyter notebooks

CI Workflow (ci.yml)

Triggers

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

Jobs

1. Test Matrix

Tests across multiple Ruby versions:

strategy:
  matrix:
    ruby-version: ['3.0', '3.1', '3.2', '3.3']
    os: [ubuntu-latest]

2. Build Steps

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  
  - name: Set up Ruby
    uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
    with:
      ruby-version: $
      bundler-cache: true
  
  - name: Run tests
    run: ./test/test_runner.sh
  
  - name: Build Jekyll site
    run: bundle exec jekyll build
  
  - name: Build gem
    run: gem build jekyll-theme-zer0.gemspec

Quality Checks

• Linting: YAML, Markdown validation
• Build: Jekyll site compilation
• Tests: Full test suite execution
• Gem: Package building verification

Release Workflow (release.yml)

Trigger

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

Release Steps

1. Checkout tagged version
2. Build gem package
3. Test gem installation
4. Publish to RubyGems.org
5. Create GitHub Release
6. Upload release assets

Release Assets

• jekyll-theme-zer0-X.Y.Z.gem
• Installation script
• Release notes (from CHANGELOG)

Environment Variables

Required Secrets

Secret	Purpose
RUBYGEMS_API_KEY	Gem publishing
GITHUB_TOKEN	Release creation (automatic)

Configuration

env:
  RUBY_VERSION: '3.2'
  JEKYLL_ENV: production

Branch Protection

Main Branch Rules

• Require pull request reviews
• Require status checks to pass:
  • test (3.2, ubuntu-latest)
  • build
  • CodeQL
• Require linear history

Status Checks

# Required checks before merge
required_status_checks:
  - test
  - build
  - codeql

Caching Strategy

Ruby Dependencies

- uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
  with:
    bundler-cache: true  # Caches vendor/bundle

Jekyll Build Cache

- uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: |
      .jekyll-cache
      _site
    key: jekyll-${{ hashFiles('_config.yml') }}

Artifacts

Test Results

- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: test-results
    path: test/results/
    retention-days: 30

Build Outputs

- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: gem-package
    path: "*.gem"

Notifications

Failure Notifications

Configure notifications for workflow failures:

- name: Notify on failure
  if: failure()
  uses: actions/github-script@v7
  with:
    script: |
      github.rest.issues.createComment({
        issue_number: context.issue.number,
        body: '❌ CI failed. Please check the logs.'
      })

Debugging Workflows

Enable Debug Logging

Set repository secrets:

• ACTIONS_RUNNER_DEBUG: true
• ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG: true

SSH Access

For debugging in runner:

- name: Setup tmate session
  if: failure()
  uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3

Best Practices

Keep Workflows Fast

• Cache dependencies
• Run jobs in parallel
• Skip unnecessary steps

Use Reusable Workflows

jobs:
  test:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/test.yml

Limit Concurrent Runs

concurrency:
  group: $-$
  cancel-in-progress: true

Troubleshooting

Tests Pass Locally, Fail in CI

1. Check Ruby version differences
2. Verify environment variables
3. Check for timing-sensitive tests

Workflow Not Triggering

1. Check branch protection rules
2. Verify path filters
3. Check for workflow file errors

Permission Denied

Ensure workflow has required permissions:

permissions:
  contents: write
  packages: read

Related

• Testing Guide
• Version Bump
• Release Management