rseng-ci-cdlisted
Install: claude install-skill fdiblen/rseng-agent-skills
# Continuous integration and delivery for research software
Use this skill when a project needs to automate its build, test and
release path, or when someone is deciding how to run CI for research
software. It covers CI/CD concepts, GitHub Actions,
GitLab CI/CD, and hybrid setups where a GitHub project runs on an
organization's GitLab runners. Prefer concrete, minimal pipelines first,
then grow them; do not scaffold monitoring, mirroring or multi-runner
infrastructure a small project will not use.
## Core concepts
Distinguish the three practices before recommending tooling:
- Continuous Integration (CI): integrate code changes into a shared
repository frequently, and verify every change with an automated build
that compiles and runs tests. Catches integration errors early.
- Continuous Delivery (CD): keep software always in a deployable state;
the release to production stays a manual decision. Value: fast, safe
rollbacks and few manual release steps.
- Continuous Deployment (CD): go further and deploy every passing change
to production automatically, with no manual gate.
When advising, name which of the three the user actually wants. Most
research projects need solid CI plus Continuous Delivery, not fully
automated Continuous Deployment.
## What a pipeline should cover
Map the project's needs onto these stages before writing YAML:
- Automated builds triggered on every change (compile plus tests).
- Version-control integration so commits and pull requests tri