CI/CD Uses

Jul 26, 2025

As I enter the new era of development. CI/CD is a must-have for modern engineers. It improves code quality and saves time. Starting a simple, automate things, and expand.

What is CI/CD?

CI/CD stands for

  • CI (Continuous Integration): Automatically test the code when changes are deployed.
  • CD (Continuous Development/Delivery): Automatically build and deploy the app for testing.

Tools can be use

  • GitHub - hosting repo and run Actions
  • VS code - to write code and create workflow files.
  • Git - to track changes and push to GitHub.
  • Vercel - This is already integrating with Git repositories.

Step-by-Step

My step-by-step guide when I am making a new repository and personal projects.

  1. Create a GitHub repository
    • Click new -> Name of the repo -> Add README.md
    • Clone the repository:
        git clone https://github.com/username/repository.git
    cd repository

Setup the project

I can use any project - for example, a PHP or node.js app. Here's an example using PHP.

This is a manual setup

  1. Inside my repo, I create: 
    touch index.php composer.json
  2. I add a simple PHP file and install dependencies if needed.

This is a setup from GitHub Actions

  1. Inside the repository, click the Actions tab
  2. Search workflow. For example: PHP
  3. Tap / Click Configure
  4. Wait for the workflow finish the deployment.
  5. Once the workflow deployed. Pull the updates from your local. Run the terminal and type: 
        composer init
  6. It will add new compose description. Fill the questions.

Create the GitHub Action Workflow

For Manual set up post. Inside the project, create the directory and file:

 mkdir -p .github/workflows
 touch .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: PHP CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "main" ]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Set up PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.1'

      - name: Validate composer.json and composer.lock
        run: composer validate

      - name: Run tests (if any)
        run: phpunit

You can modify this workflow for JS, Python, etc.

Commit and Push to GitHub

In VS Code Terminal

 git add.
 git commit -m "Description here"
 git push origin main

Once the changes deployed to the repository, go to your GitHub Repo -> Actions Tab check the workflow running.

Optional: Add a simple test.

If your app has tests. GitHub actions will run automatically. Just make sure your app builds successfully.

Final Notice

If you successfully work with the CI/CD Actions. The next steps you can try is

  • Add testing
  • Set up deployment (CD)
  • Use secrets for environment variables.
thedevcristian