A well-documented CI/CD pipeline is essential for reliable software delivery. This template diagrams the complete pipeline from source code commit through build, automated testing, staging deployment, and production release. It covers both continuous integration (automated build and test on every commit) and continuous delivery (automated deployment to staging with manual or automated promotion to production). Use it to document your existing pipeline or design a new one.
Pipeline Stages Explained
The template breaks the pipeline into distinct stages, each with clear inputs and outputs.
- Source: Code repository with branch protection and PR reviews
- Build: Compilation, dependency resolution, and container image creation
- Test: Unit tests, integration tests, security scans, and linting
- Staging: Automated deployment to a staging environment for acceptance testing
- Production: Deployment with canary, blue-green, or rolling update strategies
Branching and Release Strategies
The diagram shows how different branches flow through the pipeline. Feature branches trigger build and test stages, while merges to the main branch trigger full deployment to staging. Production deployments can be triggered by tags, manual approvals, or automated promotion after staging verification.
Quality Gates and Security
Each stage in the pipeline includes quality gates — automated checks that must pass before the pipeline continues. These include test coverage thresholds, static analysis rules, dependency vulnerability scans (SCA), and container image scanning. The template visualizes these gates to help teams understand what blocks a deployment.