Build & Deploy

Comprehensive build and deployment skill for validation, CI/CD patterns, and deployment strategies.

Core Capabilities

Build Validation

Validate builds before deployment:

Pre-build checks:

Dependencies installed correctly
Environment variables set
Required services available
Configuration files valid

Build process:

# Python project
pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m pytest
python -m mypy src/
python -m build

# Node.js project
npm ci
npm run lint
npm run test
npm run build

Post-build validation:

Build artifacts exist
Artifact sizes reasonable
Version numbers correct
No development dependencies in production

CI/CD Patterns

Common continuous integration/deployment patterns:

GitHub Actions:

name: CI/CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - run: pip install -r requirements.txt
      - run: pytest --cov=src

  build:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: docker build -t app:${{ github.sha }} .

  deploy:
    needs: build
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "Deploy to production"

Pipeline stages:

Lint: Code style and quality
Test: Unit and integration tests
Build: Create artifacts
Security: Scan for vulnerabilities
Deploy: Push to environment

Deployment Strategies

Choose appropriate deployment approach:

Rolling Deployment:

Gradual replacement of instances
Zero downtime
Easy rollback
Best for: Stateless services

Blue-Green Deployment:

Two identical environments
Instant switch between versions
Simple rollback
Best for: Critical services

Canary Deployment:

Small percentage gets new version
Gradual traffic increase
Risk mitigation
Best for: High-traffic services

Feature Flags:

Deploy code, enable separately
Gradual rollout to users
Quick disable if issues
Best for: New features

Pre-flight Checks

Validation before deployment:

Checklist:

[ ] All tests pass
[ ] Security scan clean
[ ] Build artifacts valid
[ ] Configuration correct
[ ] Database migrations ready
[ ] Dependencies compatible
[ ] Rollback plan documented
[ ] Monitoring configured
[ ] Team notified

Automated checks:

# Environment validation
./scripts/check-env.sh

# Database connectivity
./scripts/check-db.sh

# External service health
./scripts/check-services.sh

# Configuration validation
./scripts/validate-config.sh

Build Workflows

Local Build

For development and testing:

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt

# Run tests
pytest

# Build package
python -m build

Production Build

For deployment:

# Install production dependencies only
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run production build
python -m build --wheel

# Verify artifact
ls dist/

Container Build

For containerized deployments:

# Multi-stage Dockerfile
FROM python:3.11-slim as builder

WORKDIR /app
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip wheel --no-cache-dir --wheel-dir /wheels -r requirements.txt

FROM python:3.11-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /wheels /wheels
RUN pip install --no-cache /wheels/*
COPY src/ ./src/
CMD ["python", "-m", "src.main"]

Deployment Workflows

GCP Cloud Run

# Build and push image
gcloud builds submit --tag gcr.io/PROJECT/APP

# Deploy to Cloud Run
gcloud run deploy APP \
  --image gcr.io/PROJECT/APP \
  --platform managed \
  --region us-central1 \
  --allow-unauthenticated

GCP Compute Engine

# Create instance template
gcloud compute instance-templates create APP-template \
  --machine-type=e2-medium \
  --image-family=debian-11 \
  --metadata-from-file=startup-script=startup.sh

# Update managed instance group
gcloud compute instance-groups managed rolling-action start-update APP-group \
  --version=template=APP-template

GCP Cloud Functions

# Deploy function
gcloud functions deploy FUNCTION_NAME \
  --runtime python311 \
  --trigger-http \
  --entry-point main \
  --source ./src

Environment Management

Environment Variables

Required variables:

# Application
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_SECRET_KEY=<secret>

# Database
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
REDIS_URL=redis://...

# External Services
API_KEY=<key>

Validation:

required_vars = [
    'DATABASE_URL',
    'APP_SECRET_KEY',
    'API_KEY',
]

missing = [v for v in required_vars if not os.getenv(v)]
if missing:
    raise ValueError(f"Missing env vars: {missing}")

Configuration Management

Environment-specific configs:

config/
├── base.py       # Shared settings
├── development.py
├── staging.py
└── production.py

Loading pattern:

import os
env = os.getenv('APP_ENV', 'development')
config = importlib.import_module(f'config.{env}')

Rollback Procedures

Quick Rollback

# GCP Cloud Run
gcloud run services update-traffic APP \
  --to-revisions=PREVIOUS_REVISION=100

# Docker/Kubernetes
kubectl rollout undo deployment/APP

# Database (if migration failed)
python manage.py migrate APP PREVIOUS_MIGRATION

Rollback Checklist

[ ] Identify the issue
[ ] Notify stakeholders
[ ] Execute rollback command
[ ] Verify service health
[ ] Investigate root cause
[ ] Document incident

Monitoring Integration

Health Checks

@app.get("/health")
def health_check():
    return {
        "status": "healthy",
        "version": APP_VERSION,
        "timestamp": datetime.utcnow().isoformat()
    }

@app.get("/ready")
def readiness_check():
    # Check dependencies
    db_ok = check_database()
    cache_ok = check_redis()
    return {
        "ready": db_ok and cache_ok,
        "checks": {
            "database": db_ok,
            "cache": cache_ok
        }
    }

Deployment Metrics

Track after deployment:

Response times
Error rates
Resource utilization
Business metrics

Integration

Coordinate with other skills:

security-scanning skill: Pre-deploy security checks
test-coverage skill: Ensure adequate coverage
git-workflows skill: Tag releases, update changelog