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INTERMEDIATE · Medium · 60m

Debug pipeline failures like a pro

CI/CD: Starter to Shipping

Lesson notes

Goal

Find root causes fast when CI/CD fails.

Debug checklist

  1. Which step failed?
  2. Is it deterministic or flaky?
  3. Did dependencies change?
  4. Is the environment different from local?
  5. Does it fail only on main?

Tactics

  • rerun with debug logs
  • print versions:
node -v
npm -v
uname -a
  • upload artifacts (build logs, test reports)
  • isolate by running only the failing step

Common failures

  • missing env var in CI
  • different Node version
  • network timeouts during install
  • tests depending on order/time

Next Step

Package with Docker so deploy uses the exact same artifact everywhere.

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