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optimize-cicd-pipeline

@mreimbold/agent-skills
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Analyzes CI/CD pipelines to identify common antipatterns (like slow feedback loops or sequential steps) and recommends best practice patterns (like build images, parallelization, and build-once-deploy-anywhere). Use when designing, auditing, or troubleshooting CI/CD workflows to improve speed and reliability.

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SKILL.md

name optimize-cicd-pipeline
description Analyzes CI/CD pipelines to identify common antipatterns (like slow feedback loops or sequential steps) and recommends best practice patterns (like build images, parallelization, and build-once-deploy-anywhere). Use when designing, auditing, or troubleshooting CI/CD workflows to improve speed and reliability.

Optimize CI/CD Pipeline

This skill provides a framework for auditing and improving CI/CD pipelines. The primary goal of any pipeline optimization is to shorten the feedback loop. The faster a developer knows something is wrong, the cheaper it is to fix.

Usage Instructions

When analyzing a pipeline configuration or advising on DevOps practices, compare the user's current setup against the Antipatterns below. If an antipattern is detected, recommend the corresponding Pattern.

1. Core Philosophy Checklist

  • Feedback Loop: Is the time from "commit" to "failure notification" under 10 minutes?
  • Reproducibility: Can a developer run the exact same build command locally?
  • Maintenance: Is the pipeline treated as a software product (versioned, refactored, maintained)?

2. Pattern Analysis

Use this table to diagnose issues and prescribe solutions:

Detection (Antipattern) Solution (Pattern) Implementation Advice
Installing tools on every run
Build logs show repeated npm install, apt-get install, or downloading CLI tools.		 Use Build Images Pre-bake all dependencies into a Docker image. Use this image as the build agent/runner so the environment is instant.
Sequential Steps
Test, Lint, and Build run one after another. Total time = Sum of all steps.		 Parallelization (Fan-out) Run independent tasks simultaneously. Total time = Length of the slowest task.
Rebuilding per Environment
Code is compiled separately for "Test", "Staging", and "Prod".		 Build Once, Deploy Anywhere Build a single binary/artifact at the start. Promote that exact artifact through all environments to ensure consistency.
Publishing on every run
Artifact repository is flooded with broken or untested builds.		 Publish on Success Only push artifacts to the registry after all quality gates (linting, testing) have passed.
Slow Feedback / Late Failures
Syntax errors or linting issues are caught at the end of a long build.		 Fail Fast Reorder steps: Run the fastest checks (linting, unit tests) first. Do not run expensive integration tests if basic checks fail.
"Works on My Machine"
Pipeline fails but local build succeeds (or vice versa).		 Pipeline as Code Define infrastructure in code (Dockerfiles, YAML). Ensure local scripts match pipeline commands exactly.

Common Recommendations

  1. Target Time: If a pipeline takes >15 minutes, productivity drops due to context switching. Aggressively optimize parallelization.
  2. Environment Consistency: Never allow the CI server environment to drift from the developer's local environment.
  3. Drafting Pipelines: Always start by defining the "Happy Path" (success state), then add the necessary gates to protect it.