/gitlab-cicd-pipeline

name: gitlab-cicd-pipeline
description: >
  Design and implement GitLab CI/CD pipelines with stages, jobs, artifacts, and
  caching. Configure runners, Docker integration, and deployment strategies.

GitLab CI/CD Pipeline

Table of Contents

• [Overview](#overview)
• [When to Use](#when-to-use)
• [Quick Start](#quick-start)
• [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
• [Best Practices](#best-practices)

Overview

Create comprehensive GitLab CI/CD pipelines that automate building, testing, and deployment using GitLab Runner infrastructure and container execution.

When to Use

• GitLab repository CI/CD setup
• Multi-stage build pipelines
• Docker registry integration
• Kubernetes deployment
• Review app deployment
• Cache optimization
• Dependency management

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# .gitlab-ci.yml
image: node:18-alpine

variables:
  DOCKER_DRIVER: overlay2
  FF_USE_FASTZIP: "true"

stages:
  - lint
  - test
  - build
  - security
  - deploy-review
  - deploy-prod

cache:
  key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
  paths:
    - node_modules/
    - .npm/

lint:
  stage: lint
  script:
    - npm install
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the `references/` directory:

| Guide | Contents | |---|---| | [Complete Pipeline Configuration](references/complete-pipeline-configuration.md) | Complete Pipeline Configuration | | [GitLab Runner Configuration](references/gitlab-runner-configuration.md) | GitLab Runner Configuration | | [Docker Layer Caching Optimization](references/docker-layer-caching-optimization.md) | Docker Layer Caching Optimization | | [Multi-Project Pipeline](references/multi-project-pipeline.md) | Multi-Project Pipeline | | [Kubernetes Deployment](references/kubernetes-deployment.md) | Kubernetes Deployment, Performance Testing Stage, Release Pipeline with Semantic Versioning |

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Use stages to organize pipeline flow
• Implement caching for dependencies
• Use artifacts for test reports
• Set appropriate cache keys
• Implement conditional execution with `only` and `except`
• Use `needs:` for job dependencies
• Clean up artifacts with `expire_in`
• Use Docker for consistent environments
• Implement security scanning stages
• Set resource limits for jobs
• Use merge request pipelines

❌ DON'T

• Run tests serially when parallelizable
• Cache everything unnecessarily
• Leave large artifacts indefinitely
• Store secrets in configuration files
• Run privileged Docker without necessity
• Skip security scanning
• Ignore pipeline failures
• Use `only: [main]` without proper controls