Days 58–59: CI/CD — Automating Your Way to Production

Life has been lifing and we need to do a couple of two-a-days to get caught up.

Jun 16, 2025

Hello Builders,

We’re back! Life can throw a few surprises, but the Zero to Builder train keeps rolling. Today, we’re entering a new territory that’s as close to "real-world dev" as it gets: CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment).

If you’ve ever worked on a team, you know the pain of code that works on your machine but breaks somewhere else. CI/CD fixes that. It’s how professionals keep projects running smoothly—and we’re going to do it the AI-assisted way.

🔍 What’s CI/CD?

Continuous Integration (CI): Every time you push code, you want to make sure it doesn’t break anything. CI automatically runs your tests to give you a quick thumbs-up (or not).
Continuous Deployment (CD): Once the code passes all checks, CD can automatically ship it to your live environment—no manual clicks required.

🛠️ What Tools Are We Using?

pytest: A popular Python tool that makes it easy to write and run tests.
unittest: Python’s built-in testing framework. A bit more verbose, but great for learning structure.
GitHub Actions: A way to automate things like testing and deployment every time you push to GitHub.

🧪 Step 1: Write and Run a Simple Test

Let’s get our hands dirty with pytest.

pip install pytest

Create a file named test_math.py:

def add(a, b):
    return a + b

def test_add():
    assert add(2, 3) == 5

Now test it locally:

pytest

You should see something like 1 passed — sweet.

🤖 Step 2: Add GitHub Actions for CI

Create a file in your repo at .github/workflows/ci.yml:

name: Run Pytest

on: [push]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - name: Set up Python
      uses: actions/setup-python@v3
      with:
        python-version: '3.x'
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        pip install pytest
    - name: Run tests
      run: |
        pytest

Push this to GitHub. Go to the Actions tab—you’ll see your test running automatically!

🚀 Step 3: Deploy It!

Let’s automate your deployment too. If you’re using GitHub Pages for a front end, try this:

name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - name: Deploy to Pages
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
      with:
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        publish_dir: ./

Commit and push, and GitHub handles the rest.

✅ Vibe Code Prompt

"Write a GitHub Actions workflow that runs pytest on every push and deploys the app to GitHub Pages if the tests pass."

Try this in Cursor and co-build your CI/CD pipeline!

This is a big step. From here on out, your projects won’t just work, they’ll be production-ready.

Let’s keep pushing forward—two-a-days until we’re caught up.

Stay building,
Keith

Zero to Builder