CI/CD
CI/CD pipelines and deploy strategy
We build CI/CD pipelines that make it normal to deploy several times a day. Tests run on every pull request, deploys are predictable, rollbacks take minutes — not a whole meeting.
The most important investment
What a good pipeline does for you
- Fast checks on every pull request
- <5 min
- Preview environment with database and flags
- Per PR
- Rollback is pointing at a previous build
- Immutable
- Who deployed what and when
- Auditable
How we build CI/CD
Pipelines that make deploying boring.
A good CI/CD pipeline is the single most important investment a development team can make. It says "we deploy 6 times a day, and it's boring" instead of "we deploy Friday morning and everyone holds their breath". We've built pipelines for small teams (3 developers, one product) and large ones (50 developers, 12 services), and the patterns are remarkably similar: fast tests on every PR, automatic deploys to staging, manual deploys to production with one click, and a rollback that works.
We set up the pipeline in the platform you already use — typically GitHub Actions, but also GitLab CI, CircleCI or Buildkite. We make tests fast (parallel execution, caching, only what's changed), make deploys predictable (immutable artifacts, no "works on my machine"), and make rollbacks trivial (recreate the previous immutable artifact instead of "reverting" a commit in a panic).
We also handle the sharp edges: secrets management without copying .env to Slack, preview environments per PR without blowing up the cloud budget, branching strategy that fits your team size, and release notes generated automatically instead of a poor developer writing them on Friday afternoon.
What we deliver
The pipeline and the culture around it.
Fast checks, preview environments, immutable deploys and rollbacks that work.
Pipeline design and setup
We design the pipeline based on what you build and how big your team is. Workflows per branch, quality checks (typecheck, lint, tests), build cache, secrets management and deploy jobs set up in GitHub Actions, GitLab or Buildkite.
Preview environments
Every pull request gets its own running environment — on Vercel, AWS, or your own infrastructure — so reviewers can click through changes instead of reading the diff. With database seed, feature flags and automatic teardown.
Test strategy
Fast unit tests on every PR (typically Vitest or Jest), integration tests against a running test database, end-to-end tests on the most important flows (Playwright). We run tests in parallel and fail fast, so the feedback loop is minutes — not an hour.
Deploy and rollback strategy
Blue/green or canary deploys where it makes sense. Immutable artifacts (Docker images, Vercel deployments) so rollback is pointing at a previous version — not "reverting" a commit. With deploy history that can be audited.
Secrets and configuration
Secrets live in GitHub Actions Secrets, Doppler, AWS Secrets Manager or HashiCorp Vault — depending on what fits you. Never committed to the repo, never shared in Slack, and rotated on a schedule you can stand behind.
Notifications and release notes
Slack/Teams notification when deploys succeed or fail, automatic release notes generated from Conventional Commits or PR titles, and a short "deploy of the week" report if you want an overview.
Before we start
What you should consider first.
How big should it be?
A CI/CD setup for a 3-person team doesn't need to be the same as one for a 30-person team. We start with the simplest thing that works — often a single workflow that builds, tests and deploys — and expand when you have a real problem to solve. Too much pipeline complexity too early is a common mistake.
Speed vs. thoroughness
Tests need to be fast enough to run on every PR without people complaining. If it takes 25 minutes to see if something passes, the team will route around the process. We design the pipeline so fast checks (typecheck, lint, unit tests) return in under 5 minutes and heavy tests (E2E, performance) run in parallel or on a cadence you can trust.
Cost of preview environments
Preview environments are great, but they can be expensive — especially if every PR spins up a database and a queue. We design them to be cheap (shared resources where it makes sense, automatic teardown after 48 hours, smaller instance sizes) or to shut down entirely when the PR is closed.
Who owns the pipeline after handover
We don't build a pipeline only your DevOps consultant understands. Workflows are committed in your repo, documentation comes with it, and we run a handover session with your team. If you want us to maintain and extend the pipeline ongoing, we can — but it's your choice, not lock-in.
FAQ
What people usually ask.
We already use GitHub Actions — can you just streamline it?
Yes. We typically start with a pipeline audit: we review your workflows, see where time is spent (test runtime, build cache, queue time), check secrets handling and the deploy strategy. You get a prioritised report with concrete improvements and time-saving estimates per change. We can implement them for you or let your team do it.
Which CI platform should we choose?
GitHub Actions is typically the right answer if your code lives on GitHub — it's free up to a fairly high limit, extremely flexible and has a large marketplace of actions. GitLab CI is better if you use GitLab end-to-end. Buildkite or CircleCI make sense for large teams with specific requirements for parallel execution or self-hosted runners. We choose based on what you already use and where you'd like to go.
How long does it take to set up?
A thorough CI/CD setup from scratch for a SaaS product of normal size typically takes 3–6 weeks. That includes pipeline design, test setup, preview environments, deploy strategy, secrets handling and a handover session with your team. If you already have a pipeline that just needs to be optimised, we can do that in 1–2 weeks.
Can you set up preview environments for our Next.js app?
Yes, and it's typically one of the highest-valued changes we make. If you're on Vercel, it's a few hours of work to get it right with database seed and feature flags. If you self-host (AWS, Cloudflare), we build it with Pulumi or Terraform so each PR gets its own environment with automatic teardown. We design it so it doesn't blow up your cloud bill.
What about deploys to regulated environments (finance, health)?
We've built pipelines with strict change-control requirements: manual approval from a Change Manager, audit log of who deployed what when, automatic deploy windows that follow your change policy, and documented rollback procedures. It's still CI/CD — just with more ceremony where compliance demands it.
Ready to get started?
Let's have a no-pressure conversation.
We'll get back within one business day with concrete input — not a stock proposal.