CI/CD Overview
The Platform treats CI/CD as a first-class system, not a per-repository concern.
Instead of each application defining and maintaining its own pipelines, the Platform centralizes build, test, and release logic into versioned, reusable workflows that applications opt into. This shifts CI/CD from duplicated configuration to shared infrastructure.
The result is consistency without rigidity, and automation that scales with the number of products rather than against it.
Why Centralize CI/CD
Before the Platform, every repository owned its own CI/CD configuration. Over time, this led to:
duplicated pipelines with small, inconsistent variations
drift in tooling, Node versions, and release behavior
fragile scripts maintained in isolation
unclear ownership when builds failed
As the number of applications grew, CI/CD became an operational liability.
Centralizing workflows allows the Platform to own correctness, while applications retain control over when and how workflows are invoked.
Core Idea: Opt-In Workflows
Applications do not inherit CI/CD behavior implicitly.
Instead, they explicitly opt in by invoking Platform workflows from their local pipelines. This inversion of control is intentional.
Applications declare intent. The Platform owns execution.
This makes CI/CD behavior:
predictable
versioned
reviewable
shared across products
High-Level Workflow Model
The diagram below shows how an application delegates CI/CD responsibilities to the Platform.
What Lives in the Platform
Platform-owned workflows encapsulate:
linting and type checking
test orchestration
semantic versioning and tagging
artifact generation
documentation builds
deployment logic
Applications do not reimplement these steps. They consume them as stable, versioned building blocks.
What Lives in Applications
Applications retain ownership of:
when workflows are triggered
which workflows are invoked
repository-specific inputs and secrets
environment-level decisions
This keeps application repositories thin while preserving autonomy.
GitHub Context as the Integration Layer
Reusable workflows rely on GitHub Actions Context rather than hardcoded configuration.
This allows the Platform to adapt behavior based on:
repository metadata
branch and tag information
commit SHA
permissions and secrets
By using context instead of static configuration, workflows remain generic while still behaving correctly for each application.
Failure Modes and Debugging
Centralizing CI/CD improves failure visibility:
failures occur in a single, known location
logs are consistent across repositories
fixes are applied once and propagate everywhere
This dramatically reduces time spent debugging pipeline issues across multiple products.
Why This Scales
This model scales because:
CI/CD logic is written once
changes are versioned and reviewed
adoption is explicit and reversible
complexity grows linearly, not exponentially
A single developer can operate multiple production systems without managing multiple bespoke pipelines.
Relationship to Architecture
CI/CD is intentionally decoupled from application runtime architecture.
It interacts with applications through contracts (workflow inputs and outputs), not through code-level dependencies. This mirrors the same boundary discipline used in domains and packages.