Term · Web & development
CI/CD (continuous integration and delivery)
CI/CD stands for continuous integration and continuous delivery (or deployment). It is a set of automated steps that check every code change and move it through testing to release, so that updates are frequent, predictable and reversible.
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Explained
Continuous integration
Every change developers push to the shared code repository is automatically built and tested: code style checks, automated tests, security scans of dependencies. Problems are caught within minutes of the change, not weeks later.
Continuous delivery and deployment
After passing checks, changes are automatically deployed to a staging environment. With continuous delivery, a person approves the release to production; with continuous deployment, it goes live automatically once all checks pass.
What it gives a business
- Fewer broken releases: automated checks catch errors early.
- Faster fixes: small changes can be released quickly.
- Repeatability: releases do not depend on one person remembering manual steps.
- Easy rollback: if something goes wrong, the previous version can be restored.
- Transparency: a history of what was released and when.
A minimum worth having
- Code in a repository your company owns.
- Automatic build and basic tests on each change.
- Automatic deployment to staging.
- A documented, one-step release to production with rollback.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is CI/CD only for large teams?
No. Even a single developer benefits from automated deployment and checks; setup effort is modest with modern tools.
Does CI/CD replace testing by people?
No. Automated tests catch regressions; people still check new features and user experience.