Azure Pipelines
By Microsoft
Azure Pipelines is a cloud-based continuous integration and continuous delivery service, part of the Azure DevOps suite, that builds, tests, and deploys code across virtually any language, platform, and cloud.
Definition
Azure Pipelines is a cloud-based continuous integration and continuous delivery service, part of the Azure DevOps suite, that builds, tests, and deploys code across virtually any language, platform, and cloud.
Overview
Azure Pipelines lets teams define builds and releases either through YAML pipelines checked into source control or through a classic visual designer, and it supports Microsoft-hosted agents (Windows, Linux, and macOS) as well as self-hosted agents for private infrastructure. As part of Azure DevOps, it sits alongside Azure Repos, Boards, and Artifacts, but it is also commonly used with code hosted outside Azure, including GitHub repositories. Pipelines can build applications targeting .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, and many other stacks, package and push Docker images to a registry, and deploy to targets ranging from Azure App Service and Kubernetes to on-premises servers. It is frequently evaluated against other cloud CI/CD services such as AWS CodePipeline and Google Cloud Build, and against platform-native options like GitHub Actions for teams already using GitHub.
Key Features
- YAML-based pipelines checked into source control, or a classic visual editor
- Microsoft-hosted build agents for Windows, Linux, and macOS
- Support for self-hosted agents on private infrastructure
- Multi-stage pipelines covering build, test, and deployment
- Deployment to Azure services, Kubernetes, and on-premises targets
- Release gates and approvals for controlled production deployments
- Integration with Azure Repos, Azure Boards, and GitHub
Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
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