GitHub Actions pipelines
Tests, builds and deployments that run themselves on every change, in the same place the code lives.
CI/CD
Chosen per project
Maintainable handover
Manual deployment is where most production incidents originate — a step skipped, a file copied to the wrong folder, a build made on a laptop with different dependencies. Automating it makes releases boring, which is the goal.
Actions has a practical advantage: it lives beside the code, so the pipeline is reviewed in the same pull request as the change it builds, and there is no second system to keep in step.
What we build with GitHub Actions
Running the test suite on every pull request
Building and publishing container images
Deploying to staging automatically and production on approval
Scheduled maintenance jobs — dependency updates, backups, reports
Where it fits — and where it does not
Good fit when
Any repository already on GitHub
Teams wanting pipeline configuration reviewed like code
Deployments needing an explicit human gate before production
Consider something else when
Very heavy build workloads, where self-hosted runners become necessary
Organisations whose code cannot leave their own network
What automation removes from release day
Each step used to be somebody remembering to do it correctly, every time.
Install and cache
Same dependency versions as everyone else.
Test and lint
Failures surface on the pull request, not in production.
Build artefact
One image or bundle, tagged by commit.
Deploy
Staging automatically; production behind approval.
How we work with GitHub Actions
Build once, promote
A single artefact per commit moved through environments rather than rebuilt for each.
Fast feedback
The pull-request workflow kept to a few minutes with caching, so nobody is tempted to bypass it.
Environments with approvals
Production as a protected environment requiring a named approver and holding its own secrets.
Least-privilege credentials
OIDC federation to the cloud instead of long-lived keys stored as secrets.
Our typical GitHub Actions setup
| Concern | What we use |
|---|---|
| Triggers | Pull request, push to main, tags and schedules |
| Runners | GitHub-hosted, or self-hosted for private networks |
| Artefacts | Container images or bundles, tagged by commit SHA |
| Secrets | Environment-scoped; OIDC to cloud providers where supported |
| Gates | Protected environments with required reviewers |
Frequently asked questions
Public repositories are free and private ones include a monthly allowance of minutes that covers most small projects. Heavy build volumes are cheaper on self-hosted runners.
Yes — over SSH, through a container registry, or via a self-hosted runner inside your network if the server is not publicly reachable.
Required status checks before merge, and a protected production environment that will not deploy without an approval from a named person.
Topics people search for
Services built with GitHub Actions
Custom Software Development
Software shaped around the way your business already works, instead of a packaged product you have to reorganise around.
Cloud Solutions
Hosting designed around what your application actually needs, with the monitoring and backups that make it safe to rely on.
Software Maintenance
Keeping working systems working — including ones built by somebody else.
SaaS Development
Building a software product means building a business system around it too — tenancy, billing, onboarding and support tooling.
Tell us what you are trying to build
Describe the problem in plain language and we will tell you what it would take to solve it — the approach, the moving parts and the sensible order to build them in. No obligation either way.