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Tuna
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🤖 React + Next.js Pipelines: Best Practices for Modern Projects

#nextjs #cicd #react #devops

Recently, I contributed to react.dev repo and noticed how their CI/CD pipeline was structured. Clean, automated, and resilient. It made me think: what are the essentials every React/Next.js project should have in its pipeline?

Let’s explore the best practices 🚀.

🎯 The problem with "Basic pipelines"

Many teams set up basic commands

  • Install dependencies
  • Build project
  • Deploy

Sounds fine right? You are missing many critical points.

  • Bundle size related issues
  • Broken builds
  • Inconsistent environments
  • Slow feedbacks

The list doesn't end here.

The point is: a fragile pipeline leads to fragile releases.

🧬 Essential Steps in a Pipeline

A solid React/Next.js pipeline should go beyond just install, lint, test, build.
Here’s an extended GitHub Actions workflow you can adapt to your projects:

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:

jobs:
  build-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      # Checkout the repo
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      # Setup Node.js
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: 'npm'

      # Clean install dependencies
      - run: npm ci

      # Lint checks (fail fast)
      - run: npm run lint

      # Type checking with TypeScript
      - run: npm run type-check

      # Unit tests with coverage
      - run: npm run test -- --ci --coverage

      # End-to-End tests (optional: Cypress/Playwright)
      - run: npm run e2e

      # Build the Next.js app
      - run: npm run build

      # Run Next.js static analysis
      - run: npm run analyze

      # Check bundle size (with e.g. size-limit)
      - run: npm run size

      # Lint commit messages (Conventional Commits)
      - run: npx commitlint --from=HEAD~1 --to=HEAD

      # Upload build artifacts (optional)
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: next-build
          path: .next
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👏 Best Practices

  • Use npm ci over npm install → reproducible, clean installs.
  • Linting as a first step → fail fast on code style issues.
  • Unit + integration tests with coverage → reliability guaranteed prior to merging.
  • Preview deployments (e.g., Vercel, Netlify) → every PR receives a live environment.
  • Cache dependencies between runs → faster pipelines.
  • Secrets management → use environment variables safely (no .env leaks!).
  • Bundle analysis → track performance are monitored in PRs.

🙋 Bonus Steps Worth Adding

  • Type checking (tsc --noEmit) → prevents runtime bugs.
  • Playwright / Cypress e2e tests → simulate real user flows.
  • Accessibility checks (axe-core, Lighthouse CI) → catch issues early.
  • Storybook build → visual regression testing for UI components..

👋 Conclusion

A bad or poor CI/CD is no more tolerated. Is a powerful tool to leverage the development process.
A solid pipeline should be your safety net
Good pipelines include:

  • Fast feedback
  • Error prevention
  • Consistent environments
  • Bundle monitoring Of course, pipelines evolve daily, but that's not an excuse to ignore. 👉 The goal isn't perfection, is continuous improvement.

👏 Thank you for reading.
This is my first article.
If you found this useful let me know and share it.
See you around!

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