engineering-handbook/cicd.md

CI/CD Pipelines

Requirement

Every deployable repo must have a CI/CD pipeline. No manual deploys to production. If it deploys to AWS, it needs a pipeline.

Two lanes

Lane	Who applies infra	Who ships app content	When
HCP Terraform	HCP VCS, auto-apply	Per-repo deploy-*.yaml	Default for every new deployable
SAM / CDK	GitHub cd-sam / cd-cdk reusables	The same workflow	Remaining stacks until migrated

GitHub Actions is the CI/CD platform in both lanes. Infra details for the default lane are in hcp-terraform.md.

HCP app repos call org reusables cd-hcp-fargate.yaml and cd-hcp-spa.yaml with one caller job per GitHub Environment. Remaining SAM/CDK stacks keep cd-sam / cd-cdk. Sequential ci-typescript-frontend.yaml stays for remaining-lane templates until they migrate.

HCP Terraform lane (default)

Terraform owns infrastructure and never touches application content. GitHub Actions owns application content and never creates HCP runs.

Workflows

One workflow per deployable, kebab-case, in .github/workflows/. Examples: deploy-web.yaml, deploy-api.yaml. A single-deployable repo may use deploy.yaml.

Each Environment is its own caller job. environment is a with: input. The reusable job owns environment:, concurrency, OIDC, and vars.DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN. GitHub rejects environment: beside uses:.

Trigger	Caller job	Notes
push to main	deploy-dev	paths-ignore for terraform/**, docs, and the other deployable's paths. Mixed app+terraform merges still deploy (GitHub skips only when every changed file matches the ignore list).
release: published	deploy-prod (or deploy-staging)	Human-cut GitHub Release. ship-gate: true. See Releases and Hotfix ship path.
workflow_dispatch with environment and ref	matching job	Redeploy or rollback. Empty ref means github.sha.

Do not put paths / paths-ignore on tag events. A tag create often has an empty file diff, so the job never starts.

CI is a separate workflow. Converted repos trigger on pull_request to main, hotfix/**, and release/**; merge_group; and push to hotfix/** and release/**. No push CI on main. The required check is ci-complete. Unconverted remaining-lane repos still emit ci / ci.

Caller shape

jobs:
  deploy-dev:
    name: Deploy API to dev
    if: github.event_name == 'push' || (github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && inputs.environment == 'dev')
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/cd-hcp-fargate.yaml@<sha> # vX.Y.Z
    permissions: { contents: read, id-token: write }
    secrets: inherit
    with:
      environment: dev
      ref: ${{ inputs.ref }}
      ssm-prefix: /<repo>/deploy
      docker-platform: linux/amd64

  deploy-prod:
    name: Deploy API to prod
    if: github.event_name == 'release' || (github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && inputs.environment == 'prod')
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/cd-hcp-fargate.yaml@<sha> # vX.Y.Z
    permissions: { contents: read, id-token: write }
    secrets: inherit
    with:
      environment: prod
      ref: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name || inputs.ref }}
      ssm-prefix: /<repo>/deploy
      docker-platform: linux/amd64
      ship-gate: true

SPA callers use cd-hcp-spa.yaml. Add deploy-staging only where that Environment exists.

Ship-gate

ship-gate: true on prod and staging replaces the copied target job. It is legal when:

1. compare/main...<tag> is behind or identical, or
2. The tag is a fast-forward of the previous matching Release tag, SemVer matches that Environment (^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$ or -staging), and it was created from hotfix/* or release/*.

Anything else fails closed, so nothing un-reviewed ships. Environment-derived values (Sentry environment, stage) come from inputs.environment. Do not store them as per-environment variables that can silently be unset.

Deploy job (inside the reusable)

• environment: ${{ inputs.environment }}
• concurrency: deploy-${{ inputs.ssm-prefix }}-${{ inputs.environment }} with cancel-in-progress: false
• Permissions: id-token: write, contents: read
• Assumes the GitHub Environment variable DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN

Worked examples

SPA / CloudFront. Build, s3 sync hashed assets with immutable cache headers, cp index.html last with no-store, s3 sync --delete to prune, CreateInvalidation /*. Then verify live: distribution Deployed, served index.html hash equals the built hash, cache headers, hashed assets, forbidden URLs, and /api/health polled for up to five minutes when the SPA depends on an API.

Fargate. Docker build+push tagged $sha and $environment, patch GIT_SHA (and optional extra-task-env) on the task definition, RegisterTaskDefinition + UpdateService + services-stable, then poll SSM api-url until /api/health reports that SHA.

Lambda zip. esbuild (or equivalent) with GIT_SHA inlined at build time. The build constant wins over any runtime env var. Upload functions/<name>/<sha>.zip to the artifacts bucket, update-function-code on each function, then poll /api/health until it reports that exact SHA.

Verify against live state, not action success. Every check that depends on another deployable must poll, not probe once. Parallel deployables race each other on a fresh environment.

Reference: org reusables cd-hcp-spa.yaml and cd-hcp-fargate.yaml. Inline copies remain on unconverted callers until their cutover.

Releases

Cut by a person:

gh release create vX.Y.Z --target main --generate-notes

Not a workflow. Releases created with GITHUB_TOKEN do not fire release: published. A workflow-cut release would apply prod infra (HCP sees the tag) without queuing the prod app deploys.

One tag drives both prod infra and prod app. Approving the app deploys after the HCP apply lands is the operator's sequencing responsibility. SPA origin-path guards and health polls catch the common misorderings.

Hotfix ship path

HCP, Environment v*, and OIDC tag refs already allow a hotfix tag that is not yet on main. No IAM change for this path. ship-gate: true accepts it when the tag is a fast-forward of the previous matching Release, SemVer matches the Environment, and it was created from hotfix/* or release/*.

git fetch --tags
git checkout -b hotfix/describe-the-break v1.2.3
# commit, push (CI on hotfix/**) or PR targeting the hotfix branch
gh release create v1.2.4 --target hotfix/describe-the-break --generate-notes
# approve prod Environment after the HCP prod apply
# merge hotfix/describe-the-break into main

Do not add GitFlow release trains, cherry-pick bots, or auto merge-back. Merge the hotfix branch into main after prod.

GitHub Environments

Environment	Reviewers	Deployment branch policy	Variables
dev	none	main	DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN
prod	required	main (branch) and v* (tag)	DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN

Prod must allow both the tag pattern and main. Omit v* and release-triggered runs never reach the gate. Omit main and dispatch-from-main rollbacks never reach the gate.

Staging is not a default Environment. See hcp-terraform.md.

GitHub deploy role

IAM role githubdeploy-<repo>, owned by workload Terraform.

Trust. OIDC sub stays repo:Sea-Haven-Industries/<repo>:environment:<env>. SHA-pinned org reusables change job_workflow_ref to the reusable file:

• job_workflow_ref: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/cd-hcp-fargate.yaml@* (and cd-hcp-spa.yaml)
• workflow_ref: the thin caller still Sea-Haven-Industries/<repo>/.github/workflows/deploy-api.yaml@refs/heads/main and @refs/tags/v*

Adding an app still adds workflow_ref for that caller. Do not pin trust to only ref:refs/heads/main.

Permissions. Only what the workflows write:

• bucket-root s3:PutObject / DeleteObject / ListBucket on the web bucket
• s3:PutObject on the artifacts prefix
• cloudfront:CreateInvalidation and GetDistribution on the one distribution
• lambda:UpdateFunctionCode and GetFunction on the named functions
• ssm:GetParameter on /<repo>/deploy/*
• Fargate callers also need ECR push, ecs:RegisterTaskDefinition / UpdateService / Describe*, and iam:PassRole on the task roles

Nothing else.

DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN is a GitHub Environment variable, not a repo secret.

Converted CI

Converted HCP callers use parallel portions plus a ci-complete aggregator. Autofix is a pull-request convenience that commits with a GitHub App token. format:check / lint in the portions stay the fail-closed gate.

• Autofix runs on pull_request only, skips forks, and skips when the actor is the App. If the tree is dirty it commits style: apply formatter and sets committed=true so this SHA skips build/test. The synchronize run must be green. Do not --no-verify. Do not push to main.
• merge_group and push skip autofix (result == skipped) so those paths still run portions.
• always() on later jobs is required so an autofix failure does not skip static.
• Org secrets: AUTOFMT_APP_ID, AUTOFMT_APP_PRIVATE_KEY. The App has contents: write and metadata: read. It is not on the main-branch ruleset bypass list.

The org ruleset CI complete requires the check-run name ci-complete. Do not put portion names (frontend / static, unit (1), …) in a ruleset. Unconverted repos stay on main branch protection requiring ci / ci. A repo is on exactly one of those rulesets. Flip membership in the same window as the workflow merge. Do not remove or retarget native GitHub merge-queue rulesets.

Python callers pass format-command: ruff format . and lint-fix-command: ruff check --fix .. Frontend passes npm scripts. Do not run eslint --fix unless that repo's lint script is already fix-safe.

SAM / CDK lane (remaining)

Existing SAM and CDK stacks keep thin callers of org reusables until they migrate. Do not start a new deployable on this lane. Sequential ci-typescript-frontend.yaml remains for remaining-lane SPA templates until those repos migrate onto ci-frontend.yaml plus ci-complete.

Every remaining repo still has:

File	Trigger	Purpose
ci.yaml	pull_request on main	Lint, typecheck, test, synth/validate
deploy.yaml	push on main	Deploy to AWS

CDK stacks (TypeScript)

# .github/workflows/ci.yaml
name: CI
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  ci:
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/ci-typescript-cdk.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # vX.Y.Z
    with:
      node-version: "24"

# .github/workflows/deploy.yaml
name: Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  deploy:
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/cd-cdk.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # vX.Y.Z
    with:
      node-version: "24"
    secrets:
      deploy-role-arn: ${{ secrets.AWS_DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN }}

SAM stacks (Python)

# .github/workflows/ci.yaml
name: CI
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  ci:
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/ci-python-sam.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # vX.Y.Z

# .github/workflows/deploy.yaml
name: Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  deploy:
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/cd-sam.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # vX.Y.Z
    with:
      stack-name: "your-stack-name"
      cfn-role-arn: "arn:aws:iam::<account-id>:role/github-cfn-execution-role"
    secrets:
      deploy-role-arn: ${{ secrets.AWS_DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN }}

cd-sam.yaml takes two required inputs and one required secret. The two role ARNs are not interchangeable; they are different roles with different jobs:

Name	Kind	Purpose
stack-name	input (with:)	The CloudFormation stack name
cfn-role-arn	input (with:)	The CloudFormation execution role the stack is deployed as. This is github-cfn-execution-role in the repo's target account. Substitute that account's ID for <account-id>; the account must have the deploy substrate provisioned before the first deploy. Do not point new repos at the management account.
deploy-role-arn	secret (secrets:)	The OIDC role the workflow assumes, from the repo's AWS_DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN secret (see Remaining-lane authentication)

Passing cfn-role-arn under secrets: fails: it is an input, so the run errors on an unexpected secret and a missing required input.

The remaining inputs have defaults and are only needed when a repo differs from them: region (us-east-1), sam-template (template.yaml), and python-version (3.12). The optional parameter-overrides secret passes Key=Value pairs through to sam deploy.

Remaining-lane authentication

Deploy workflows authenticate to AWS via OIDC (no long-lived credentials). Each remaining SAM/CDK repo needs:

1. An IAM role named githubdeploy-<repo-name> with:
   • OIDC trust policy for token.actions.githubusercontent.com
   • Subject condition: repo:Sea-Haven-Industries/<repo>:ref:refs/heads/main
   • Inline policy allowing sts:AssumeRole on CDK/SAM bootstrap roles
2. A repo secret AWS_DEPLOY_ROLE_ARN containing the role ARN

New HCP repos do not use this trust or this secret. See GitHub deploy role.

Node.js Version

Always pass node-version: "24" to reusable workflows. Local dev uses Node 24 / npm 11 which generates lockfileVersion 3. The workflow defaults match this, but be explicit to avoid drift.

Concurrency

cancel-in-progress: false for deploys, true for CI

Cancelling a deploy midway does not roll it back. It abandons the run wherever it happens to be, which can leave a CloudFormation stack mid-update, an Elastic Beanstalk environment mid-update, a half-uploaded SPA, or a Lambda on a stub. A superseded deploy therefore queues behind the running one instead of killing it.

CI runs produce no external side effects, so when a newer commit supersedes an older one the older run should be abandoned (cancel-in-progress: true).

HCP lane

Declare concurrency inside the reusable deploy job:

concurrency:
  group: deploy-${{ inputs.ssm-prefix }}-${{ inputs.environment }}
  cancel-in-progress: false

Independent deployables must not share an ssm-prefix. Unconverted inline callers still key deploy-<name>-<env> until they move.

Remaining SAM / CDK reusables

Reusable workflows in the central .github repo declare their own concurrency group. Consumers do not have to add one.

The concurrency block sits on the job, not at workflow top level. A single run can contain several jobs that must not share a group: a reusable with multiple jobs needs each one keyed separately, and a caller repo can invoke the same reusable from several jobs in one run. Where a reusable has more than one job, ${{ github.job }} is part of the key so those jobs do not serialise against each other.

GitHub evaluates a concurrency group within the repository that owns the run, and for a reusable workflow that is the caller's repository. Two different repos calling the same reusable never contend. A group only has to be unique inside one repo, which is what the literal workflow-name prefix (cd-sam-, cd-cdk-, and so on) provides: it stops two different reusables in the same repo from colliding.

Every deploy group is keyed on the inputs that name what is being deployed, not just on the workflow. Keying on the workflow alone would serialise deploys that are genuinely independent.

The groups as implemented:

# cd-sam.yaml
group: cd-sam-${{ inputs.region }}-${{ inputs.stack-name }}

# cd-cdk.yaml
group: cd-cdk-${{ inputs.region }}-${{ inputs.stacks }}-${{ inputs.stack-name }}

# cd-dotnet-eb.yaml
group: cd-dotnet-eb-${{ inputs.eb-application }}-${{ inputs.eb-environment }}

# cd-mobile-ios.yaml
group: cd-mobile-ios-${{ inputs.working-directory }}-${{ inputs.fastlane-lane }}

cd-cdk keys on stacks, the stack selector, rather than on stack-name alone. stack-name is optional there, so a multi-account caller that passes only a selector would collapse every one of its jobs into a single group.

Every component of a key is an input that is either required or always defaults, so the group can never evaluate to a bare prefix: region defaults, stacks defaults to --all, and working-directory and fastlane-lane both default. A key built from an input that can be empty silently merges unrelated deploys into one group.

CI groups follow the same shape and add ${{ github.ref }} so branches do not cancel each other:

# ci-typescript-frontend.yaml
group: ci-typescript-frontend-${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}-${{ inputs.working-directory }}
cancel-in-progress: true

Naming

• All workflow files: kebab-case
• Reusable workflow references: pinned to a full 40-character commit SHA. Never a branch or tag ref.

Workflow Ref Pinning

Reusable workflow references are pinned to a full commit SHA of the central .github repo. The trailing comment names the release tag when the central repo is release-backed, or main when no release exists:

# Release-backed (standard — central .github repo cuts releases):
uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/ci-python-sam.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # vX.Y.Z

# No release yet (use main only when the central repo has no release tags):
uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/ci-python-sam.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # main

Branch refs are mutable: a compromised or bad commit on the central repo would flow instantly into every consumer's CI and deploy path. A SHA pin turns that same change into a reviewable Renovate PR instead. The # vX.Y.Z comment lets readers identify which release the pin corresponds to.

Per the pinning principle, pins are for reproducibility, not for freezing time. Keep them moving with a root renovate.json that extends local>Sea-Haven-Industries/.github. Do not add dependabot.yml.

When adding a caller workflow by hand, pin to the commit SHA corresponding to the latest release of the central repo (gh api /repos/Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/commits/vX.Y.Z --jq .sha) and annotate with # vX.Y.Z. The commits endpoint resolves both lightweight and annotated tags to the underlying commit. Let Renovate advance the pin from there. Use gh api /repos/Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/commits/main --jq .sha with a # main comment only when the central repo has no release tags.

When to Add a Pipeline

• When creating a new deployable project — the pipeline is part of the initial setup, not a follow-up
• When working on an existing project that lacks one — flag it and add it as part of the current work

A project is not production-ready without CI/CD. New deployables use the HCP lane.

PR Auto-Labeling

Pull requests are auto-labeled org-wide by a reusable workflow in .github. The label rules live once, centrally, inside the reusable workflow itself (written to the runner at execution time), so each repo needs only a short caller and no per-repo labeler.yml:

# .github/workflows/labeler.yml, the per-repo caller
name: Labeler
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write
jobs:
  label:
    uses: Sea-Haven-Industries/.github/.github/workflows/callable-labeler.yaml@<full-commit-sha>  # vX.Y.Z

• The trigger is plain pull_request, not pull_request_target: private repos take no fork PRs, so the lower-privilege event is sufficient and avoids the pwn-request surface. Because pull_request runs the workflow from the merge commit, the Labeler check appears on the PR that first adds the caller — an absent or failed check means a missing permission, not expected behaviour.
• The caller MUST grant all three permissions. Reusable-workflow permissions can only be downgraded from the caller, so omitting issues: write (needed to create labels that don't exist yet) or any other grant causes a silent startup_failure.
• Adding the caller is part of new-repo provisioning.