CI/CD with GitLab: From Zero to Production in 15 Minutes

Why GitLab CI/CD?

GitLab combines source code management and CI/CD in a single platform. No separate Jenkins servers, no plugin chaos — everything is integrated into one tool and configurable via a single YAML file.

The Pipeline Architecture

A typical pipeline at devRocks consists of five stages:

• Build: Build Docker image, install dependencies, compile assets.
• Test: Run unit tests, integration tests, and static analysis in parallel.
• Security: Dependency scanning, container scanning, and SAST.
• Staging: Automatic deployment to the staging environment.
• Production: Manual gate with one-click deployment and automatic rollback.

Best Practices

• Use caching: Composer and npm caches speed up builds by up to 70%.
• Parallel Jobs: Distribute tests across multiple jobs — PHPUnit, ESLint, and Psalm simultaneously.
• Review Apps: Deploy a temporary environment for every merge request.
• Environments: Use GitLab Environments for deployment tracking and rollback history.

Results

With this pipeline architecture, our teams deploy multiple times a day instead of weekly. The error rate in production has dropped by over 85%, and developers spend less time on manual processes.