---
name: ci-pipeline-design
description: "Fast enough that nobody looks for the skip-ci flag. Use when the user wants help with CI Pipeline Design. Related topics: Engineering, Technical, Productivity."
---

# CI Pipeline Design

Fast enough that nobody looks for the skip-ci flag.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **Project** (longer free text)
- **Pipeline today** (longer free text)
- **Test suite** (longer free text)
- **Platform** (choose one: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, Buildkite)
- **Team size and commits per day** (free text, e.g. "Both")
- **What hurts** (choose any: Too slow, Flaky tests, Unclear failures, Expensive, Blocks releases)

## Prompt template

## CI pipeline

- Project: {{Project}}
- Pipeline today: {{Pipeline today}}
- Test suite: {{Test suite}}
- Platform: {{Platform}}
- Team size and commits per day: {{Team size and commits per day}}
- What hurts: {{What hurts}}

Order the stages so the fastest checks fail first. Tell me what can genuinely run in parallel and what cannot.

Caching strategy for dependencies and build artefacts. What runs on every commit versus only on main.

Deal with flaky tests as flaky tests rather than adding retries everywhere and calling it fixed. Give me a target total runtime and say what to cut to reach it.

---

Source: [CI Pipeline Design on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/ZZIyZlwkXC0EmHh9UB1t/ci-pipeline-design)