deployment-pipeline-design

Deployment Pipeline Design

Architecture patterns for multi-stage CI/CD pipelines with approval gates and deployment strategies.

Do not use this skill when

Instructions

Purpose

Design robust, secure deployment pipelines that balance speed with safety through proper stage organization and approval workflows.

Use this skill when

Pipeline Stages

Standard Pipeline Flow

┌─────────┐   ┌──────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌────────┐   ┌──────────┐
│  Build  │ → │ Test │ → │ Staging │ → │ Approve│ → │Production│
└─────────┘   └──────┘   └─────────┘   └────────┘   └──────────┘

Detailed Stage Breakdown

Approval Gate Patterns

Pattern 1: Manual Approval

# GitHub Actions
production-deploy:
  needs: staging-deploy
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://app.example.com
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - name: Deploy to production
      run: |
        # Deployment commands

Pattern 2: Time-Based Approval

# GitLab CI
deploy:production:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - deploy.sh production
  environment:
    name: production
  when: delayed
  start_in: 30 minutes
  only:
    - main

Pattern 3: Multi-Approver

# Azure Pipelines
stages:
- stage: Production
  dependsOn: Staging
  jobs:
  - deployment: Deploy
    environment:
      name: production
      resourceType: Kubernetes
    strategy:
      runOnce:
        preDeploy:
          steps:
          - task: ManualValidation@0
            inputs:
              notifyUsers: 'team-leads@example.com'
              instructions: 'Review staging metrics before approving'

Reference: See assets/approval-gate-template.yml

Deployment Strategies

1. Rolling Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  replicas: 10
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 2
      maxUnavailable: 1

Characteristics:

2. Blue-Green Deployment

# Blue (current)
kubectl apply -f blue-deployment.yaml
kubectl label service my-app version=blue

# Green (new)
kubectl apply -f green-deployment.yaml
# Test green environment
kubectl label service my-app version=green

# Rollback if needed
kubectl label service my-app version=blue

Characteristics:

3. Canary Deployment

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Rollout
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  replicas: 10
  strategy:
    canary:
      steps:
      - setWeight: 10
      - pause: {duration: 5m}
      - setWeight: 25
      - pause: {duration: 5m}
      - setWeight: 50
      - pause: {duration: 5m}
      - setWeight: 100

Characteristics:

4. Feature Flags

from flagsmith import Flagsmith

flagsmith = Flagsmith(environment_key="API_KEY")

if flagsmith.has_feature("new_checkout_flow"):
    # New code path
    process_checkout_v2()
else:
    # Existing code path
    process_checkout_v1()

Characteristics:

Pipeline Orchestration

Multi-Stage Pipeline Example

name: Production Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Build application
        run: make build
      - name: Build Docker image
        run: docker build -t myapp:${{ github.sha }} .
      - name: Push to registry
        run: docker push myapp:${{ github.sha }}

  test:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Unit tests
        run: make test
      - name: Security scan
        run: trivy image myapp:${{ github.sha }}

  deploy-staging:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: staging
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to staging
        run: kubectl apply -f k8s/staging/

  integration-test:
    needs: deploy-staging
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: npm run test:e2e

  deploy-production:
    needs: integration-test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: production
    steps:
      - name: Canary deployment
        run: |
          kubectl apply -f k8s/production/
          kubectl argo rollouts promote my-app

  verify:
    needs: deploy-production
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Health check
        run: curl -f https://app.example.com/health
      - name: Notify team
        run: |
          curl -X POST ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }} \
            -d '{"text":"Production deployment successful!"}'

Pipeline Best Practices

Rollback Strategies

Automated Rollback

deploy-and-verify:
  steps:
    - name: Deploy new version
      run: kubectl apply -f k8s/

    - name: Wait for rollout
      run: kubectl rollout status deployment/my-app

    - name: Health check
      id: health
      run: |
        for i in {1..10}; do
          if curl -sf https://app.example.com/health; then
            exit 0
          fi
          sleep 10
        done
        exit 1

    - name: Rollback on failure
      if: failure()
      run: kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-app

Manual Rollback

# List revision history
kubectl rollout history deployment/my-app

# Rollback to previous version
kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-app

# Rollback to specific revision
kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-app --to-revision=3

Monitoring and Metrics

Key Pipeline Metrics

Integration with Monitoring

- name: Post-deployment verification
  run: |
    # Wait for metrics stabilization
    sleep 60

    # Check error rate
    ERROR_RATE=$(curl -s "$PROMETHEUS_URL/api/v1/query?query=rate(http_errors_total[5m])" | jq '.data.result[0].value[1]')

    if (( $(echo "$ERROR_RATE > 0.01" | bc -l) )); then
      echo "Error rate too high: $ERROR_RATE"
      exit 1
    fi

Reference Files

Related Skills