🚀 SkyForge API — DevOps CI/CD Pipeline Project

A production-style DevOps project demonstrating how to build, containerize, and deploy a backend application using a fully automated CI/CD pipeline.

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📌 Project Overview

SkyForge API is a simple Node.js backend service designed to showcase real-world DevOps practices.

This project goes beyond just building an application — it demonstrates how to:

• Containerize applications with Docker
• Automate testing and builds using GitHub Actions
• Push Docker images to Docker Hub
• Deploy applications automatically to AWS Elastic Beanstalk
• Use environment variables in production
• Implement a branch-based workflow

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⚙️ Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js (Express)
• Containerization: Docker
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions
• Container Registry: Docker Hub
• Cloud Platform: AWS Elastic Beanstalk

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🔁 CI/CD Pipeline Flow

Developer → GitHub → GitHub Actions → Docker Hub → AWS Elastic Beanstalk → Users

On every merge to main:

• ✅ Run automated tests
• 🐳 Build Docker image
• 📦 Push image to Docker Hub
• ☁️ Deploy automatically to AWS Elastic Beanstalk

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🌐 Live Endpoints

Once deployed, the API exposes the following endpoints:

• GET / → API status
• GET /health → Health check
• GET /api/info → App metadata (name, version, environment)
• GET /api/time → Server time

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📁 Project Structure

skyforge-api/
│
├── src/
│   ├── app.js
│   └── server.js
│
├── tests/
│   └── app.test.js
│
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ci.yml
│
├── Dockerfile
├── Dockerrun.aws.json
├── .dockerignore
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
└── README.md

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🧪 Running Locally

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Kennethidisi/skyforge-api.git
cd skyforge-api

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Run the app

npm run dev

4. Run tests

npm test

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🐳 Run with Docker

Build image

docker build -t skyforge-api .

Run container

docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e PORT=3000 \
  -e APP_NAME="SkyForge API" \
  -e APP_VERSION=1.0.0 \
  -e NODE_ENV=production \
  skyforge-api

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☁️ Deployment (AWS Elastic Beanstalk)

Deployment is fully automated via GitHub Actions.

Key Components:

• Dockerrun.aws.json → tells AWS which Docker image to run
• GitHub Actions → handles build, push, and deploy
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk → hosts the application

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🔐 Environment Variables

Configured in AWS Elastic Beanstalk:

PORT=3000
APP_NAME=SkyForge API
APP_VERSION=1.0.0
NODE_ENV=production

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🔀 Branching Strategy

• main → production (triggers deployment)
• dev → integration

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💡 Key Learnings

• CI/CD pipelines require precision — small mistakes can break the entire workflow
• Docker image tagging (latest vs SHA) is critical for traceability
• AWS deployment involves more than just pushing code — understanding the platform matters
• Debugging pipelines is where real DevOps learning happens

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📈 Future Improvements

• Use image SHA for deployments instead of latest
• Add staging environment
• Implement AWS OIDC (remove static credentials)
• Add logging and monitoring (CloudWatch)
• Optimize Docker image with multi-stage builds

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🙌 Conclusion

This project represents a complete DevOps workflow:

From writing code → to deploying it in the cloud automatically.

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📎 Author

Kenneth Idisi

• GitHub: https://github.com/Kennethidisi
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idisi

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⭐ If you found this useful

Give it a star and feel free to fork 🚀