The Complete Guide to Building CI/CD Pipelines with Claude Code

Streamline CI/CD Pipeline Setup with Claude Code

CI/CD configuration files have many intricate syntax requirements and often require time-consuming trial and error. With Claude Code, you can generate pipelines tailored to your project in one shot.

Basic GitHub Actions Workflow

> Create a GitHub Actions workflow.
> - Run lint, type checking, and tests when a PR is created
> - Build and deploy when merged to main
> - Use Node.js 20 and pnpm
> - Configure caching for faster runs

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI

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

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

jobs:
  lint-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v4
        with:
          version: 9

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: pnpm

      - run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

      - name: Lint
        run: pnpm lint

      - name: Type Check
        run: pnpm tsc --noEmit

      - name: Test
        run: pnpm test -- --coverage

      - name: Upload Coverage
        if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: coverage
          path: coverage/

  deploy:
    needs: lint-and-test
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v4
        with:
          version: 9

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: pnpm

      - run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
      - run: pnpm build

      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        uses: amondnet/vercel-action@v25
        with:
          vercel-token: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
          vercel-org-id: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
          vercel-project-id: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}
          vercel-args: --prod

Docker Image Build and Push

> Create a workflow that builds a Docker image
> and pushes it to GitHub Container Registry.
> Tag with the git tag and commit SHA.

# .github/workflows/docker.yml
name: Docker Build

on:
  push:
    tags: ["v*"]

jobs:
  build-and-push:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3

      - uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        id: meta
        with:
          images: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}
          tags: |
            type=semver,pattern={{version}}
            type=sha,prefix=

      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

For setting up Docker environments, see the Docker Integration Guide.

Integrating E2E Tests

> Integrate Playwright E2E tests into CI/CD.
> Save screenshots on test failures.

  e2e-test:
    needs: lint-and-test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v4
        with:
          version: 9

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: pnpm

      - run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

      - name: Run E2E Tests
        run: pnpm test:e2e

      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        if: failure()
        with:
          name: playwright-report
          path: playwright-report/
          retention-days: 7

For the overall testing strategy, see the Complete Testing Strategy Guide. For Git workflow integration, also check out Fully Automating Git Operations.

Adding Security Scans

> Add dependency vulnerability scanning to CI.

  security:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npx audit-ci --moderate

For more on security checks, see Automating Security Audits.

Summary

With Claude Code, you can build CI/CD pipelines optimized for your project in no time. By clearly specifying each stage — lint, test, build, and deploy — you get production-ready workflows generated for you.

For GitHub Actions details, refer to the official GitHub Actions documentation. For Claude Code, see the official Anthropic documentation.