A DevOps pipeline is the automated sequence of steps that takes a code change from commit to production. It usually covers build, test, security and policy checks, packaging and deployment. Each step runs automatically, and a change moves forward only when the previous step passes.
Common stages are:
- Commit: a developer pushes code and opens a merge request.
- Build and test: the pipeline compiles code and runs unit tests.
- Verify: security, compliance and policy checks run, including checks on infrastructure code.
- Release: approved artifacts are versioned and stored.
- Deploy: an execution platform applies the change to real infrastructure.
For infrastructure as code, the verify stage is where Ansible Playbooks and Terraform plans should be checked. Steampunk Spotter sits in that stage. Execution platforms handle the deploy stage.
To add Terraform to a CI/CD pipeline, run terraform fmt, terraform validate and terraform plan on every merge request. Save the plan, run policy checks against it, and apply only after the checks pass and a reviewer approves.
