Continuous Integration

A software development practice where developers regularly merge their code changes into a central repository, after which automated builds and tests are run.

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice where developers frequently merge code changes into a shared repository, triggering automated build and test processes each time. The practice aims to detect integration issues early, when they are easier and less costly to fix.

A CI system monitors the source code repository for changes and automatically runs a defined set of steps: compiling the code, executing unit and integration tests, performing static analysis, and reporting results. Popular CI tools include GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, and CircleCI.

CI is a prerequisite for effective API development and serverless deployments. Automated testing of API contracts ensures that changes to one service do not break consumers. In gateway-based architectures, CI pipelines can validate configuration files (such as routing rules and security policies) before deployment, catching syntax errors and policy conflicts before they reach production.