AWS CodePipeline
By Amazon Web Services
AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed continuous delivery service on Amazon Web Services that automates the build, test, and deployment stages of releasing software.
Definition
AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed continuous delivery service on Amazon Web Services that automates the build, test, and deployment stages of releasing software.
Overview
AWS CodePipeline orchestrates a release process as a series of stages — such as source, build, test, and deploy — and automatically runs the pipeline whenever a change is detected in a connected source, such as a GitHub repository or an Amazon ECR image push. Rather than performing the work itself, CodePipeline coordinates other AWS services and third-party tools: AWS CodeBuild for compiling and testing, AWS CodeDeploy or CloudFormation/Terraform for deployment, and external providers like Jenkins or GitHub Actions can also be plugged in as pipeline actions. Because it is a managed AWS-native service, CodePipeline integrates closely with IAM for permissions, CloudWatch for monitoring and triggering, and CloudTrail for auditing pipeline activity. It is commonly compared to other cloud-native CI/CD services such as Azure Pipelines and Google Cloud Build, and to general-purpose tools like GitLab CI when teams choose between a cloud-vendor pipeline and a platform-agnostic one.
Key Features
- Stage-based pipeline model (source, build, test, deploy, approve)
- Native integration with AWS CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CloudFormation
- Support for third-party build and deployment tools as pipeline actions
- IAM-based permissions and CloudTrail auditing for pipeline activity
- Manual approval actions for gated production releases
- Event-driven triggers from source repository or artifact changes
- Cross-account and cross-region pipeline execution