First Impressions of CI/CD in GitHub Link to heading

After years of working with various CI/CD solutions like Jenkins, Travis CI, and CircleCI, GitHub Actions represents a significant shift in how we approach continuous integration and deployment. Having spent the last few months experimenting with Actions for several projects, I’m impressed by both its simplicity and power.

What Makes Actions Different Link to heading

The most obvious advantage is the tight integration with GitHub repositories. There’s no need to connect external services, manage separate authentication, or synchronise permissions. Your CI/CD configuration lives alongside your code, and the entire workflow feels seamless.

The marketplace of pre-built actions is what really sets it apart. Instead of writing bash scripts to set up Node.js, deploy to AWS, or send Slack notifications, you can compose workflows from community-maintained actions.

name: Deploy to Production
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: "14"
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws-region: ap-southeast-2
      - run: npm run deploy

The Learning Curve Link to heading

Coming from other CI systems, the YAML syntax felt familiar, but the Actions-specific concepts took some time to grasp. Understanding the difference between jobs, steps, and actions, and how data flows between them, requires a mental model shift.

The documentation is excellent, though I found myself referring to community examples more often than the official docs. The GitHub marketplace makes it easy to find actions for common tasks, but understanding what each action does and how to configure it properly takes time.

Real-World Applications Link to heading

I’ve been using Actions for several different types of projects:

Static Site Deployment Link to heading

For Jekyll and Hugo sites, Actions make deployment incredibly straightforward. Push to the main branch, and your site builds and deploys automatically to GitHub Pages or other hosting providers.

Node.js Applications Link to heading

The combination of setup-node, dependency caching, and deployment actions makes it easy to create robust CI/CD pipelines for JavaScript applications. The ability to run tests across multiple Node versions in parallel is particularly useful.

Docker Workflows Link to heading

Building and pushing Docker images to registries integrates well with Actions. The ability to build multi-architecture images and manage image tags based on Git branches or tags feels very natural.

Powerful Features Link to heading

Matrix Builds Link to heading

The matrix strategy allows testing across multiple versions, operating systems, or configurations without duplicating workflow code:

strategy:
  matrix:
    node-version: [12.x, 14.x, 16.x]
    os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macOS-latest]

Conditional Execution Link to heading

The ability to conditionally run jobs based on file changes, branch names, or previous step outcomes provides fine-grained control over when workflows execute.

Secrets Management Link to heading

The integration with GitHub’s secrets system makes it easy to manage API keys, deployment credentials, and other sensitive data without exposing them in workflow files.

Limitations and Gotchas Link to heading

The free tier includes 2000 minutes per month for private repositories, which is generous for small projects but can be consumed quickly by matrix builds across multiple operating systems.

Windows and macOS runners are significantly more expensive (in terms of minutes consumed) than Linux runners. This pushes you towards Linux-based workflows where possible.

The learning curve for creating custom actions is steeper than I expected. While using existing actions is straightforward, building reusable actions that handle edge cases properly requires deeper understanding of the platform.

Comparison with Other CI Systems Link to heading

Having worked extensively with Jenkins, Actions feels refreshingly simple. No plugin management, no server maintenance, no complex permission systems. The trade-off is less customisation at the infrastructure level.

Compared to Travis CI or CircleCI, the integration advantages are significant, but those platforms still have more mature features for complex enterprise workflows.

The Ecosystem Effect Link to heading

What’s particularly interesting is how Actions is influencing the broader open source ecosystem. Projects are standardising on Actions workflows, making it easier for contributors to understand and modify CI/CD setups across different repositories.

The marketplace creates a virtuous cycle where common patterns get packaged into reusable actions, raising the quality and reducing the maintenance burden for everyone.

Future Potential Link to heading

GitHub is clearly investing heavily in Actions. The regular addition of new features, improvements to the runner infrastructure, and expansion of the marketplace suggest this is more than just a CI/CD solution; it’s becoming a platform for automating software development workflows.

The integration possibilities with other GitHub features (Issues, Projects, Releases) hint at workflows that go beyond traditional CI/CD into project management and collaboration automation.

Key Takeaways Link to heading

After several months of real-world usage, Actions has become my default choice for new projects hosted on GitHub. The combination of simplicity, integration, and the growing ecosystem makes it compelling despite some limitations.

For teams already invested in other CI/CD platforms, the migration cost might not be justified. But for new projects or teams looking to simplify their toolchain, Actions deserves serious consideration.

The platform represents a shift towards CI/CD as a first-class feature of code hosting rather than a separate service. This integration is likely the future of development workflows.

What’s your experience with GitHub Actions? How does it compare to other CI/CD tools you’ve used, and what workflows have you found most useful?