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🤖 React + Next.js Pipelines: Best Practices for Modern Projects

#nextjs #cicd #react #devops

Recently, I contributed to react.dev repo and noticed how their CI/CD pipeline was structured. Clean, automated, and resilient. It made me think: what are the essentials every React/Next.js project should have in its pipeline?

Let’s explore the best practices 🚀.

🎯 The problem with "Basic pipelines"

Many teams set up basic commands

  • Install dependencies
  • Build project
  • Deploy

Sounds fine right? You are missing many critical points.

  • Bundle size related issues
  • Broken builds
  • Inconsistent environments
  • Slow feedbacks

The list doesn't end here.

The point is: a fragile pipeline leads to fragile releases.

🧬 Essential Steps in a Pipeline

A solid React/Next.js pipeline should go beyond just install, lint, test, build.
Here’s an extended GitHub Actions workflow you can adapt to your projects:

name: CI on: push: branches: [ main ] pull_request: jobs: build-and-test: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: # Checkout the repo - uses: actions/checkout@v3 # Setup Node.js - uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: 20 cache: 'npm' # Clean install dependencies - run: npm ci # Lint checks (fail fast) - run: npm run lint # Type checking with TypeScript - run: npm run type-check # Unit tests with coverage - run: npm run test -- --ci --coverage # End-to-End tests (optional: Cypress/Playwright) - run: npm run e2e # Build the Next.js app - run: npm run build # Run Next.js static analysis - run: npm run analyze # Check bundle size (with e.g. size-limit) - run: npm run size # Lint commit messages (Conventional Commits) - run: npx commitlint --from=HEAD~1 --to=HEAD # Upload build artifacts (optional) - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: next-build path: .next
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👏 Best Practices

  • Use npm ci over npm install → reproducible, clean installs.
  • Linting as a first step → fail fast on code style issues.
  • Unit + integration tests with coverage → reliability guaranteed prior to merging.
  • Preview deployments (e.g., Vercel, Netlify) → every PR receives a live environment.
  • Cache dependencies between runs → faster pipelines.
  • Secrets management → use environment variables safely (no .env leaks!).
  • Bundle analysis → track performance are monitored in PRs.

🙋 Bonus Steps Worth Adding

  • Type checking (tsc --noEmit) → prevents runtime bugs.
  • Playwright / Cypress e2e tests → simulate real user flows.
  • Accessibility checks (axe-core, Lighthouse CI) → catch issues early.
  • Storybook build → visual regression testing for UI components..

👋 Conclusion

A bad or poor CI/CD is no more tolerated. Is a powerful tool to leverage the development process.
A solid pipeline should be your safety net
Good pipelines include:

  • Fast feedback
  • Error prevention
  • Consistent environments
  • Bundle monitoring Of course, pipelines evolve daily, but that's not an excuse to ignore. 👉 The goal isn't perfection, is continuous improvement.

👏 Thank you for reading.
This is my first article.
If you found this useful let me know and share it.
See you around!

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