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Workflow

Why learn about workflows

In the AI era of development, the less manual repetition the better. Workflow automation helps you:

  • Automatically run tests and builds after code commits
  • Automatically deploy websites or applications
  • Automate routine tasks (data backups, scheduled reports)

Mastering workflow automation is an essential skill for modern developers and one of the capabilities Andrew Ng mentions for "AI engineers."

GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions is one of the most commonly used CI/CD tools, deeply integrated with GitHub. You can use it to automatically build, test, and deploy projects.

What is CI/CD

  • CI (Continuous Integration): After every code commit, automatically run tests and builds to ensure code quality
  • CD (Continuous Deployment): After tests pass, automatically deploy to production

Basic concepts

  • Workflow: YAML files defined in the .github/workflows/ directory
  • Trigger: What event triggers the workflow (e.g., push, pull request)
  • Job: A task unit within a workflow
  • Step: A specific action within a job

Example: auto-build MkDocs site

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -r requirements.txt

      - name: Build site
        run: mkdocs build --clean

      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v4
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./site

Common GitHub Actions

Auto-run tests

name: Run Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -r requirements.txt
      - name: Run tests
        run: pytest

Code quality check

name: Lint

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - name: Install linter
        run: pip install ruff
      - name: Check code style
        run: ruff check .

Other automation tools

Makefile

For simple local automation tasks, Makefile remains the most practical solution (see the [[Make]] section).

pre-commit

Automatically run checks before Git commits:

pip install pre-commit

# .pre-commit-config.yaml
repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
    rev: v4.5.0
    hooks:
      - id: trailing-whitespace
      - id: end-of-file-fixer
      - id: check-yaml

Husky

Use Git Hooks in Node.js projects:

npx husky init

Other resources