CI CD Quest

Tracks

1. 01🏗️CI/CD Foundations

   0/12 lessons

   What integration, delivery, and deployment actually mean

   CI/CD is a discipline before it is a YAML file. This track grounds the vocabulary, explains why the pre-CI/CD world hurt, and shows where GitHub Actions sits in the broader landscape. By the end you can defend each acronym and know when not to use any of it.

   Lesson list (12)

   • 01
     What CI Is~15 min · ci, definition, feedback
   • 02
     What CD Is — Delivery vs Deployment~14 min · cd, delivery, deployment
   • 03
     The Old Way — Integration Hell~13 min · history, integration-hell, merge
   • 04
     The CI/CD Promise~12 min · promise, guarantees, trust
   • 05
     The Feedback Loop~13 min · feedback, speed, loop
   • 06
     Pipeline Anatomy~14 min · anatomy, stages, gates
   • 07
     Git as the Foundation~12 min · git, events, branches
   • 08
     Green Builds~12 min · culture, discipline, main
   • 09
     The CI/CD Landscape~11 min · tools, comparison, landscape
   • 10
     Why GitHub Actions~11 min · github-actions, comparison, tradeoffs
   • 11
     GitHub Actions Cost~10 min · billing, cost, minutes
   • 12
     When CI/CD Is Overkill~10 min · judgment, scope, yagni

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

2. 02🔧GitHub Actions Core Concepts

   0/12 lessons

   Workflows, jobs, steps, runners, actions

   GitHub Actions has six primitives that show up in every workflow you'll ever write. Once you can read them like sentences, the rest of the system reduces to composition. This track makes those primitives second nature.

   Lesson list (12)

   • 01
     Workflows~11 min · workflow, yaml, primitive
   • 02
     Events (Triggers)~12 min · events, triggers, on
   • 03
     Jobs~12 min · jobs, parallelism, dependencies
   • 04
     Steps~11 min · steps, run, uses
   • 05
     Runners~12 min · runners, vm, self-hosted
   • 06
     Actions~11 min · actions, marketplace, uses
   • 07
     The Marketplace~10 min · marketplace, actions, vetting
   • 08
     Workflow YAML — Anatomy~13 min · yaml, syntax, anatomy
   • 09
     Your First Real Workflow~14 min · walkthrough, starter, python
   • 10
     Triggering Events Deep Dive~13 min · events, advanced, fork
   • 11
     Workflow Runs~11 min · runs, logs, debugging
   • 12
     Workflow File Naming & Organization~9 min · organization, naming, convention

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

3. 03🛡️Building & Testing Pipelines

   0/13 lessons

   Lint, type-check, test, scan — the gates that keep main green

   This is the meat of CI. Real test pipelines for Python and Node, with caching that takes minutes off every run, matrices that catch regressions across Python/Node versions, lint and type-check gates that fail before the test even starts, and security scanners that find secrets in your code. By the end you can wire any project into a real test pipeline.

   Lesson list (13)

   • 01
     Python CI~13 min · python, pytest, setup-python
   • 02
     Node.js CI~12 min · node, npm, pnpm
   • 03
     Multi-Version Testing~11 min · matrix, versions, compatibility
   • 04
     Matrix Strategy Deep Dive~14 min · matrix, include, exclude
   • 05
     Caching Dependencies~13 min · cache, performance, actions/cache
   • 06
     Artifacts~10 min · artifacts, upload, download
   • 07
     Test Reporting~11 min · reporting, junit, coverage
   • 08
     Linting~10 min · lint, ruff, eslint
   • 09
     Type Checking~11 min · types, mypy, pyright, tsc
   • 10
     Security Scanning~12 min · security, sast, secrets, supply-chain
   • 11
     Build Artifacts~11 min · artifacts, build, immutable
   • 12
     Fail Fast~9 min · fail-fast, ordering, pipeline-design
   • 13
     Parallel Jobs~12 min · parallel, jobs, split

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

4. 04🔐Secrets, Environments & Variables

   0/12 lessons

   How to ship without long-lived keys leaking everywhere

   Workflows that touch real systems need credentials. This track is about how to give them just enough — repository / org / environment-scoped secrets, environment protection rules, GITHUB_TOKEN scopes, and OIDC for keyless cloud auth. By the end your pipelines deploy without any long-lived static credentials.

   Lesson list (12)

   • 01
     Repository Secrets~11 min · secrets, repo, scope
   • 02
     Using Secrets Safely~13 min · secrets, redaction, leakage
   • 03
     Organization Secrets~9 min · org, secrets, scope
   • 04
     Environment Secrets~12 min · environments, secrets, deploy
   • 05
     Variables (Non-Secret Configuration)~8 min · variables, vars, config
   • 06
     Environment Protection Rules~11 min · protection, approval, branch
   • 07
     GITHUB_TOKEN~12 min · github-token, permissions, scope
   • 08
     OIDC — Keyless Cloud Auth~14 min · oidc, aws, gcp, azure
   • 09
     The env Context~9 min · env, context, scoping
   • 10
     Contexts & Expressions~13 min · context, expressions, templating
   • 11
     Security Best Practices~11 min · security, checklist, hardening
   • 12
     Secret Rotation~11 min · rotation, lifecycle, incidents

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

5. 05♻️Advanced Workflows & Reuse

   0/14 lessons

   Job graphs, reusable workflows, composite actions, dynamic matrices

   Once your workflow file passes 200 lines, it stops being readable. This track shows the seven patterns that keep CI YAML small even as the system grows: <code>needs:</code> graphs, <code>if:</code> conditions, reusable workflows, composite actions, concurrency, dynamic matrices, and triggers like <code>workflow_dispatch</code>, <code>schedule</code>, and <code>repository_dispatch</code>.

   Lesson list (14)

   • 01
     Job Dependencies — needs:~11 min · needs, dag, ordering
   • 02
     Conditional Execution — if:~11 min · if, conditional, expressions
   • 03
     Reusable Workflows~13 min · reusable, workflow_call, centralization
   • 04
     Composite Actions~12 min · composite, action, reusable
   • 05
     Concurrency~10 min · concurrency, cancel, groups
   • 06
     Timeouts~8 min · timeout, hangs, reliability
   • 07
     Continue on Error~8 min · continue-on-error, soft-fail
   • 08
     Step Outputs~10 min · outputs, steps, communication
   • 09
     Job Outputs~9 min · outputs, jobs, communication
   • 10
     Dynamic Matrix~12 min · matrix, dynamic, fromJSON
   • 11
     Path Filters~8 min · paths, filters, skip
   • 12
     Manual Inputs (workflow_dispatch)~9 min · dispatch, inputs, manual
   • 13
     Scheduled Workflows~9 min · schedule, cron, nightly
   • 14
     Repository Dispatch~9 min · dispatch, external, webhook

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

6. 06🚀Deployment Pipelines

   0/13 lessons

   From a green build to live in production

   This track is the actual ship. Strategies (rolling, blue/green, canary), real targets (Pages, Docker registries, AWS, GCP, Azure, Vercel, SSH), the release machinery (tags, version bumps, changelogs), the disasters (database migrations, rollback), and the smoke tests that turn 'deploy succeeded' into 'production actually works'.

   Lesson list (13)

   • 01
     Deployment Strategies~13 min · strategies, rollout, rollback
   • 02
     GitHub Pages~9 min · pages, static, docs
   • 03
     Docker Build & Push~13 min · docker, ghcr, registry
   • 04
     Cloud Deployment — AWS~12 min · aws, oidc, ecs, lambda
   • 05
     Cloud Deployment — GCP & Azure~11 min · gcp, azure, oidc
   • 06
     SSH Deployment~10 min · ssh, vps, rsync
   • 07
     Vercel & Netlify~9 min · vercel, netlify, preview
   • 08
     Release Creation~11 min · releases, tags, changelog
   • 09
     Version Bumping~9 min · versioning, semver, automation
   • 10
     Database Migrations~12 min · migrations, schema, downtime
   • 11
     Smoke Tests~10 min · smoke, post-deploy, verification
   • 12
     Rollback~11 min · rollback, incident, recovery
   • 13
     Deployment Notifications~8 min · notifications, slack, alerts

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

7. 07🤖CI/CD for AI/ML Projects

   0/12 lessons

   Eval gates, prompt regressions, GPU runners, model registries

   AI/ML changes are tricky in CI: behavior is statistical, model files are huge, GPUs are expensive, and 'a regression' isn't always a thrown exception. This track covers the patterns Pippa actually uses — LLM eval gates, prompt regression suites, notebook testing, large-file handling, GPU runners, and the eval-gate pattern that keeps prompt changes from quietly degrading production.

   Lesson list (12)

   • 01
     LLM Evaluation in CI~13 min · llm, eval, ci
   • 02
     Prompt Regression Testing~12 min · prompts, regression, drift
   • 03
     Model Testing~11 min · model, testing, drift
   • 04
     Data Validation~11 min · data, validation, quality
   • 05
     Notebook Testing~9 min · jupyter, notebooks, papermill
   • 06
     Large File Handling~10 min · lfs, large-files, s3
   • 07
     GPU Runners~11 min · gpu, runners, cost
   • 08
     Docker for ML~11 min · docker, ml, cuda
   • 09
     Cost Management~10 min · cost, budget, api
   • 10
     Model Registry~10 min · registry, versioning, mlops
   • 11
     API Testing for AI Services~10 min · api, testing, contract
   • 12
     The Eval-Gate Pattern~13 min · eval-gate, deploy, regression

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

8. 08⚙️Self-Hosted Runners & Advanced Ops

   0/13 lessons

   Run your own CI infrastructure at scale and observe what it does

   When hosted runners stop being enough — too expensive, too small, missing GPUs or Apple Silicon, or you need access to a private network — you bring your own runners. This track covers the full self-hosted lifecycle: setup, security, debugging, performance tuning, monitoring, GitHub Apps for richer integration, and the alternative platforms worth comparing. The final lesson is the ideal CI setup as Pippa would build it from scratch.

   Lesson list (13)

   • 01
     Why Self-Hosted Runners~10 min · self-hosted, decisions, tradeoffs
   • 02
     Setting Up a Runner~11 min · setup, install, labels
   • 03
     Runner Labels & Routing~9 min · labels, routing, matchmaking
   • 04
     Self-Hosted Runner Security~12 min · security, isolation, ephemeral
   • 05
     macOS Runners (and Apple Silicon)~10 min · macos, apple-silicon, self-hosted
   • 06
     Docker-in-Docker~9 min · docker, dind, isolation
   • 07
     Act — Local Workflow Testing~9 min · act, local, debugging
   • 08
     Debugging Workflows~10 min · debug, logs, runner-debug
   • 09
     Performance Tuning~10 min · performance, speed, optimization
   • 10
     Monitoring CI~10 min · monitoring, metrics, observability
   • 11
     GitHub Apps for CI~10 min · github-apps, auth, integration
   • 12
     Alternative Platforms — When to Switch~10 min · alternatives, comparison, switch
   • 13
     The Ideal CI Setup~14 min · ideal, checklist, synthesis

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→