CircleCI: Multi-Stage Deployment

Deploy to staging, test, then promote to production with approval.

.circleci/config.yml
version: 2.1

jobs:
  deploy-staging:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/node:24.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: npm install
      - run:
          name: Deploy to Staging
          command: |
            set -o pipefail
            npx zuplo deploy --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" --environment staging 2>&1 | tee ./DEPLOYMENT_STDOUT
            STAGING_URL=$(grep -oP 'Deployed to \K(https://[^ ]+)' ./DEPLOYMENT_STDOUT)
            echo "export STAGING_URL=$STAGING_URL" >> "$BASH_ENV"
            echo "$STAGING_URL" > staging_url.txt
      - persist_to_workspace:
          root: .
          paths:
            - staging_url.txt

  test-staging:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/node:24.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - attach_workspace:
          at: .
      - run: npm install
      - run:
          name: Run Tests
          command: |
            STAGING_URL=$(cat staging_url.txt)
            npx zuplo test --endpoint "$STAGING_URL"

  deploy-production:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/node:24.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: npm install
      - run:
          npx zuplo deploy --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" --environment production

workflows:
  staging-to-production:
    jobs:
      - deploy-staging:
          filters:
            branches:
              only: main
      - test-staging:
          requires:
            - deploy-staging
      - hold-for-approval:
          type: approval
          requires:
            - test-staging
      - deploy-production:
          requires:
            - hold-for-approval

Setting Up Approval

The type: approval job pauses the workflow until someone approves it in the CircleCI UI.

For more control:

1. Go to Project Settings > Advanced
2. Enable Only build pull requests for protected branches
3. Use CircleCI contexts to restrict who can approve production deployments