What is Continuous Integration (CI)?
Continuous Integration, or CI, means automatically building and testing code every time someone makes a change.
Here’s how it usually works:
- Developers work on their own feature branches.
- They submit their changes using a pull request.
- The team reviews the code.
- If the review passes, the code is merged into the main branch.
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As soon as a commit or merge happens, an automated system:
- Builds the application
- Runs tests
- Checks if anything is broken
All of this happens without manual effort.
This automation is set up using tools like:
- GitHub Actions for GitHub
- Azure Pipelines for Azure DevOps
- AWS CodePipelines for AWS DevOps
These tools use build and test rules written by developers and stored in the same code repository.
Why is Continuous Integration useful?
CI has many benefits because it follows a “fix problems early” approach.
1. Finds problems early
If a bug is found right after code is written, it is cheaper and faster to fix than discovering it later. CI runs tests immediately after each change, so issues are caught early.
2. Saves time with automation
Since builds and tests run automatically:
- Developers do not need to run them manually
- Results come faster
- The process is more reliable
3. Keeps things consistent
CI always builds and tests the same way every time.
This consistency:
- Reduces human errors
- Makes results predictable
- Helps teams follow coding standards
4. Improves code quality
Because every change is tested:
- Bad code is stopped early
- Code stays cleaner
- Applications are easier to maintain
5. Supports faster delivery
CI is a key part of Continuous Delivery (CD).
Together, they:
- Speed up the whole software release process
- Reduce manual work for developers and operations teams
- Help deliver new features to users faster
In short
Continuous Integration means:
- Build and test code automatically
- Do it every time someone changes the code
- Catch problems early
- Improve code quality
- Deliver software faster and more safely
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