Stop writing your CI pipeline from scratch every time. Here’s one that works.

The Workflow File

Save this as .github/workflows/ci.yml:

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  ci:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: "npm"

      - run: npm ci

      - name: Lint
        run: npm run lint

      - name: Type check
        run: npx tsc --noEmit

      - name: Test
        run: npm test

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

What this does

1. Triggers on push to main and on PRs targeting main
2. Concurrency — if you push again while CI is running, it cancels the old run (saves minutes)
3. Caches npm — actions/setup-node with cache: "npm" caches your node_modules automatically
4. Runs in order: install → lint → type check → test → build
5. If any step fails, the whole pipeline fails and you see it on the PR

Add deployment

Append this job to deploy after CI passes:

  deploy:
    needs: ci
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: "npm"
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        run: npx vercel --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

Variations

Using pnpm instead of npm:

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v2
        with:
          version: 9
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: "pnpm"
      - run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

Using Bun:

      - uses: oven-sh/setup-bun@v1
      - run: bun install
      - run: bun test
      - run: bun run build

Add a test coverage comment on PRs:

      - name: Test with coverage
        run: npx vitest --coverage --reporter=json --outputFile=coverage.json

Pro tips

• Don’t run on every branch — only main and PRs. Feature branch pushes waste CI minutes.
• npm ci not npm install — ci is faster and uses the lockfile exactly.
• cancel-in-progress saves you from queued runs eating your free minutes.

Copy the file, adjust the scripts to match your package.json, push. Done.

Related resources

• GitHub Actions cheat sheet

Related: Git Cheat Sheet · What is CI/CD