CI/CD Workflows

AirLink uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration and deployment. Every push, pull request, and release triggers automated workflows that check code quality, run tests, and deploy changes.

Overview

Three components have separate workflow pipelines:

• Panel - web interface, deployed to production servers
• Daemon - node agent, built as cross-platform binaries
• Site - documentation and landing pages, deployed to GitHub Pages

Each workflow is defined in .github/workflows/ as YAML files. Workflows run on GitHub-hosted runners (ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest) and use caching to speed up repeated builds.

Panel Workflows

Build & Test

Runs on every push and pull request to main. This is the primary quality gate.

name: Panel CI
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "panel/**"
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "panel/**"

Steps:

1. Checkout code
2. Setup Node.js 20 with npm cache
3. Install dependencies (npm ci)
4. TypeScript type check (npx tsc --noEmit)
5. Lint (npm run lint)
6. Run tests (npm test)

If any step fails, the PR is blocked from merging.

Deploy

Triggers on push to main when panel files change. Builds the production bundle and deploys to the running server.

name: Panel Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "panel/**"

Steps:

1. Checkout code
2. Setup Node.js 20
3. Install dependencies
4. Build production bundle (npm run build)
5. Run database migrations if needed
6. Deploy to production server
7. Restart the panel service

Deployments use SSH to connect to the target server. The private key and server address are stored as repository secrets:

• DEPLOY_SSH_KEY - SSH private key for deployment
• DEPLOY_HOST - Server hostname or IP
• DEPLOY_USER - SSH username
• DEPLOY_PATH - Path to the panel installation on the server

Preview Deployments

Pull requests get automatic preview deployments so reviewers can see changes before merging. Each PR gets a unique subdomain.

name: Panel Preview
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "panel/**"

Steps:

1. Build the panel
2. Deploy to a preview environment
3. Comment on the PR with the preview URL

Preview deployments are cleaned up when the PR is closed or merged.

Daemon Workflows

Build

Runs on push and PR for daemon code changes. Checks TypeScript, linting, and runs tests.

name: Daemon CI
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "daemon/**"
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "daemon/**"

Steps:

1. Checkout code
2. Setup Node.js 20
3. Install dependencies
4. TypeScript type check
5. Lint
6. Run tests

Release

Builds cross-platform binaries when a new release is tagged. Produces six binaries covering all supported platforms.

name: Daemon Release
on:
  release:
    types: [published]

Build matrix:

Each binary is built on its native platform for best compatibility. Build steps:

1. Checkout the release tag
2. Setup Node.js on the target platform
3. Install production dependencies
4. Bundle with esbuild or pkg
5. Upload binary as a release asset

Binaries are uploaded to the GitHub Release page as downloadable assets.

Embedded Assets

The daemon embeds certain storage files directly into the compiled binary. A workflow generates embedded.ts from these files before builds.

name: Daemon Embedded Assets
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "daemon/storage/**"

Steps:

1. Read files from daemon/storage/
2. Generate daemon/src/embedded.ts with file contents as string constants
3. Commit the generated file (or fail if uncommitted changes detected)

This ensures the binary always contains the latest default configurations and schema files.

Site Workflows

Build

Generates the static documentation site from markdown files.

name: Site Build
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "site/**"
      - "data/docs/**"

Steps:

1. Checkout code
2. Setup Node.js
3. Install dependencies
4. Build static site (npm run build)

Deploy

Publishes the built site to GitHub Pages or a custom domain.

name: Site Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "site/**"
      - "data/docs/**"

Steps:

1. Build the site
2. Deploy to GitHub Pages using actions/deploy-pages
3. Update the custom domain DNS if configured

The site is available at the configured URL after deployment completes.

Workflow Files

Directory Structure

.github/
└── workflows/
    ├── panel-ci.yml          # Panel build and test
    ├── panel-deploy.yml      # Panel production deploy
    ├── panel-preview.yml     # PR preview deployments
    ├── daemon-ci.yml         # Daemon build and test
    ├── daemon-release.yml    # Daemon binary builds
    ├── daemon-embedded.yml   # Embedded asset generation
    ├── site-build.yml        # Site build
    └── site-deploy.yml       # Site deployment

Trigger Events

Path filters are used to avoid running unrelated workflows. For example, a change in panel/ does not trigger daemon workflows.

Secrets and Environment Variables

Secrets are configured in the repository settings under Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions.

Environment variables can be set per workflow or per job. Use env: at the workflow level for shared values, or env: at the job level for job-specific ones.

Caching Strategies

Workflows use GitHub Actions cache to speed up builds:

• npm cache: Cache ~/.npm based on package-lock.json hash
• Node modules: Cache node_modules/ keyed on OS and lockfile
• Build output: Cache dist/ for incremental builds

Example cache configuration:

- name: Cache node modules
  uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: ~/.npm
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
    restore-keys: |
      ${{ runner.os }}-node-

Local Development

Running Tests Locally

cd panel
npm test

Tests run with Jest by default. The test suite covers:

• API endpoint handlers
• Service business logic
• Utility functions
• Middleware

To run a specific test file:

npm test -- path/to/test.test.ts

For watch mode during development:

npm test -- --watch

Linting and Formatting

cd panel
npm run lint

The linter uses ESLint with the project’s configured rules. Fix auto-fixable issues:

npm run lint -- --fix

Format code with Prettier:

npx prettier --write .

Type Checking

cd panel
npx tsc --noEmit

This runs the TypeScript compiler without emitting files. It catches type errors without producing output. Run this before committing to catch issues early.

Release Process

Version Bumping

Update the version in package.json:

cd panel
npm version patch   # 1.0.0 -> 1.0.1
npm version minor   # 1.0.0 -> 1.1.0
npm version major   # 1.0.0 -> 2.0.0

This creates a git commit and tag automatically.

Tag Creation

Tags follow semantic versioning:

git tag v1.0.1
git push origin v1.0.1

Or use the GitHub UI to create a release from the tag.

Binary Builds for Daemon

When a release is published, the daemon workflow automatically builds binaries for all platforms. The workflow:

1. Checks out the tagged commit
2. Installs dependencies with npm ci
3. Bundles the daemon into a single file per platform
4. Names binaries consistently: airlink-daemon-{platform}-{arch}

For manual binary builds:

cd daemon
npm run build

Changelog Generation

Generate a changelog from git commits between tags:

git log v1.0.0..v1.0.1 --oneline

GitHub also auto-generates release notes from merged PRs when publishing a release. Edit the release notes to add context or group related changes.