CI/CD Explained for Beginners (Using GitHub Actions Terms)

The Problem CI/CD Solves ## Think of CI/CD as a Robot Assistant ## Workflow: The Plan ## Event: What Triggers Everything ## Jobs: The Big Tasks ## Runner: The Machine Doing the Work ## Steps: The Small Instructions ## Artifacts: What You Keep After the Job ## The Full CI/CD Story ## Why This Matters ## Final Thought When you’re new to development, CI/CD can sound like one of those “senior developer things” — important, but abstract and intimidating. In reality, CI/CD is just about automating the boring but critical parts of shipping code. Let’s explain it through a simple story, using GitHub Actions concepts you may have already seen: workflow, event, jobs, steps, runner, and artifacts. No buzzwords. No magic. Imagine this workflow: This process is slow, repetitive, and stressful — especially as a project grows or more people join. CI/CD exists to automate this process. GitHub Actions is one tool that helps you do this. CI/CD is like a robot that watches your repository and says: “Whenever something important happens, I’ll take care of the routine work.” That robot is controlled by something called a workflow. A workflow is a set of instructions written in a YAML file. It answers two questions: “When code is pushed, run tests and build the app.” The workflow just sits there until something wakes it up. An event is what starts the workflow. Common events include: You push code → an event happens → the workflow starts. No event, no automation. Once the workflow starts, it creates one or more jobs. Each job represents a big task, such as: “Only build the app if the tests pass.” A runner is the machine that executes a job. It’s just a computer: Think of it like this: Jobs don’t do work themselves. They ask a runner to do it. Each job is broken down into steps. Steps are the smallest units of work: Steps run one after another, in order. If a step fails, the job stops — which is exactly what you want. Some jobs produce useful files: Artifacts are files you choose to save after a workflow run. Those are the files you intend to upload to your production server “We worked hard on this — don’t throw it away.” Putting it all together: Instead of wondering: “Did I forget to run something?” You let the system handle it. CI/CD isn’t about complexity — it’s about trusting automation to do the repeatable work better than humans. Once you understand workflows, events, jobs, steps, runners, and artifacts, you already understand the foundation of modern CI/CD. The rest is just details. Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse - You write code - You test it manually - You build it manually - You deploy it manually - Something breaks anyway - CI (Continuous Integration) checks your code automatically - CD (Continuous Delivery / Deployment) prepares or ships it automatically - When should automation run? - What should it do? - Pushing code - Opening a pull request - Running on a schedule - Running tests - Building the application - Deploying the app - Run in parallel - Depend on other jobs - Linux, Windows, or macOS - Hosted by GitHub or by you - Check out the code - Install dependencies - Build files - Build outputs - Test reports - Download build results - Share files between jobs - Debug failures later - You push code (event) - A workflow starts - The workflow creates jobs - Jobs run on a runner - Jobs execute steps - Steps produce artifacts - Everything runs automatically - Faster feedback - Fewer production bugs - Less manual work - More confidence when shipping code