Internship Report > Workshop > CI/CD Pipeline > GitHub Actions Setup

GitHub Actions Setup

Overview

GitHub Actions provides CI/CD automation for Lexi. This section guides you through setting up workflows to automatically deploy backend and frontend.

Workflow Architecture

Step	Description
1	Git Push → GitHub
2	GitHub Actions triggered
3	Backend Workflow: SAM Deploy → Lambda
4	Frontend Workflow: Amplify Deploy → Amplify CDN

Step 1: Create GitHub Repository

# Initialize git (if not already done)
git init

# Add remote
git remote add origin https://github.com/<USERNAME>/lexi.git

# Push code
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git push -u origin main

Step 2: Setup GitHub Secrets

Go to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions, add secrets:

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<YOUR_ACCESS_KEY>
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<YOUR_SECRET_KEY>
AWS_REGION=ap-southeast-1

Get AWS credentials:

# Create IAM user for GitHub Actions
aws iam create-user --user-name github-actions-lexi

# Attach policy
aws iam attach-user-policy \
  --user-name github-actions-lexi \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess

# Create access key
aws iam create-access-key --user-name github-actions-lexi

Step 3: Create Backend Workflow

Create .github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml:

name: Deploy Backend

on:
  push:
    branches: [main, develop]
    paths:
      - 'lexi-be/**'
      - '.github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.12'

      - name: Setup AWS SAM
        uses: aws-actions/setup-sam@v2

      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws-region: ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}

      - name: SAM Build
        working-directory: ./lexi-be
        run: sam build

      - name: SAM Deploy
        working-directory: ./lexi-be
        run: |
          sam deploy \
            --no-confirm-changeset \
            --no-fail-on-empty-changeset \
            --stack-name lexi-be \
            --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM \
            --region ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}          

      - name: Get API Endpoint
        working-directory: ./lexi-be
        run: |
          sam list stack-outputs \
            --stack-name lexi-be \
            --region ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}

Step 4: Create Frontend Workflow

Create .github/workflows/deploy-frontend.yml:

name: Deploy Frontend

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - 'lexi-fe/**'
      - '.github/workflows/deploy-frontend.yml'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
          cache-dependency-path: lexi-fe/package-lock.json

      - name: Install dependencies
        working-directory: ./lexi-fe
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build
        working-directory: ./lexi-fe
        env:
          NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBSOCKET_URL: ${{ secrets.NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBSOCKET_URL }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_COGNITO_REGION: ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_COGNITO_USER_POOL_ID: ${{ secrets.COGNITO_USER_POOL_ID }}
          NEXT_PUBLIC_COGNITO_CLIENT_ID: ${{ secrets.COGNITO_CLIENT_ID }}
        run: npm run build

      - name: Deploy to Amplify
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws-region: ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}
      
      - name: Trigger Amplify deployment
        run: |
          aws amplify start-job \
            --app-id ${{ secrets.AMPLIFY_APP_ID }} \
            --branch-name main \
            --job-type RELEASE

Step 5: Setup Branch Protection

Go to Settings → Branches → Add rule:

Branch name pattern: main

☑ Require a pull request before merging
☑ Require status checks to pass before merging
  - deploy-backend
  - deploy-frontend
☑ Require branches to be up to date before merging

Troubleshooting

Issue: Workflow failed - AWS credentials

# Verify credentials
aws sts get-caller-identity

Solution: Check GitHub Secrets are correct

Issue: SAM build failed

# Test locally
cd lexi-be
sam build

Solution: Check Python dependencies in requirements.txt

Issue: Amplify deployment failed

# Check Amplify app
aws amplify list-apps --region <REGION>

Solution: Verify Amplify App ID in secrets

Checklist

GitHub repository created
GitHub Secrets setup
Backend workflow created
Frontend workflow created
Workflows running successfully
Branch protection setup

Next Steps

Continue to SAM Deploy to understand backend deployment details.