/building-ci-pipelines

name: building-ci-pipelines
description: Constructs secure, efficient CI/CD pipelines with supply chain security (SLSA), monorepo optimization, caching strategies, and parallelization patterns for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Argo Workflows. Use when setting up automated testing, building, or deployment workflows.

Building CI Pipelines

Purpose

CI/CD pipelines automate testing, building, and deploying software. This skill provides patterns for constructing robust, secure, and efficient pipelines across GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Argo Workflows, and Jenkins. Focus areas: supply chain security (SLSA), monorepo optimization, caching, and parallelization.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke when:

• Setting up continuous integration for new projects
• Implementing automated testing workflows
• Building container images with security provenance
• Optimizing slow CI pipelines (especially monorepos)
• Implementing SLSA supply chain security
• Configuring multi-platform builds
• Setting up GitOps automation
• Migrating from legacy CI systems

Platform Selection

**GitHub-hosted** → GitHub Actions (SLSA native, 10K+ actions, OIDC) **GitLab-hosted** → GitLab CI (parent-child pipelines, built-in security) **Kubernetes** → Argo Workflows (DAG-based, event-driven) **Legacy** → Jenkins (migrate when possible)

Platform Comparison

| Feature | GitHub Actions | GitLab CI | Argo | Jenkins | |---------|---------------|-----------|------|---------| | Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | | SLSA | Native | Manual | Good | Manual | | Monorepo | Good | Excellent | Manual | Plugins |

Quick Start Patterns

Pattern 1: Basic CI (Lint → Test → Build)

# GitHub Actions
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm run lint

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

  build:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm run build

Pattern 2: Matrix Strategy (Multi-Platform)

test:
  runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
  strategy:
    matrix:
      os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
      node-version: [18, 20, 22]
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
      with:
        node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
    - run: npm test

9 jobs (3 OS × 3 versions) in parallel: 5 min vs 45 min sequential.

Pattern 3: Monorepo Affected (Turborepo)

build:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0  # Required for affected detection

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

    - name: Build affected
      run: npx turbo run build --filter='...[origin/main]'
      env:
        TURBO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TURBO_TOKEN }}
        TURBO_TEAM: ${{ vars.TURBO_TEAM }}

60-80% CI time reduction for monorepos.

Pattern 4: SLSA Level 3 Provenance

name: SLSA Build
on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read
  packages: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      digest: ${{ steps.build.outputs.digest }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Build container
        id: build
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          push: true
          tags: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:${{ github.sha }}

  provenance:
    needs: build
    permissions:
      id-token: write
      actions: read
      packages: write
    uses: slsa-framework/slsa-github-generator/.github/workflows/generator_container_slsa3.yml@v1.10.0
    with:
      image: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}
      digest: ${{ needs.build.outputs.digest }}
      registry-username: ${{ github.actor }}
    secrets:
      registry-password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Verification:

cosign verify-attestation --type slsaprovenance \
  --certificate-identity-regexp "^https://github.com/slsa-framework" \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com \
  ghcr.io/myorg/myapp@sha256:abcd...

Pattern 5: OIDC Federation (No Credentials)

deploy:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  permissions:
    id-token: write
    contents: read
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Configure AWS credentials
      uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
      with:
        role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/GitHubActionsRole
        aws-region: us-east-1

    - name: Deploy
      run: aws s3 sync ./dist s3://my-bucket

Benefits: No stored credentials, 1-hour lifetime, full audit trail.

Pattern 6: Security Scanning

security:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0

    - name: Gitleaks (secret detection)
      uses: gitleaks/gitleaks-action@v2

    - name: Snyk (vulnerability scan)
      uses: snyk/actions/node@master
      env:
        SNYK_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SNYK_TOKEN }}

    - name: SBOM generation
      uses: anchore/sbom-action@v0
      with:
        format: spdx-json
        output-file: sbom.spdx.json

Caching

Automatic Dependency Caching

- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: 20
    cache: 'npm'  # Auto-caches ~/.npm
- run: npm ci

Supported: npm, yarn, pnpm, pip, poetry, cargo, go

Manual Cache Control

- uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: |
      ~/.cargo/bin
      ~/.cargo/registry
      target/
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-cargo-${{ hashFiles('**/Cargo.lock') }}
    restore-keys: |
      ${{ runner.os }}-cargo-

Multi-Layer Caching (Nx)

- name: Nx Cloud (build outputs)
  run: npx nx affected -t build
  env:
    NX_CLOUD_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NX_CLOUD_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

- name: Vite Cache
  uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: '