GitHub Actions: Multi-Stage Deployment

Deploy to staging first, run tests, then promote to production with manual approval. This pattern ensures changes are validated before reaching production.

.github/workflows/multi-stage.yaml
 
name: Multi-Stage Deployment

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy-staging:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      ZUPLO_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ZUPLO_API_KEY }}
    outputs:
      staging-url: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.url }}

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Deploy to staging
        id: deploy
        shell: bash
        run: |
          OUTPUT=$(npx zuplo deploy --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" --environment staging 2>&1)
          echo "$OUTPUT"
          DEPLOYMENT_URL=$(echo "$OUTPUT" | grep -oP 'Deployed to \K(https://[^ ]+)')
          echo "url=$DEPLOYMENT_URL" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

  test-staging:
    needs: deploy-staging
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run tests against staging
        run:
          npx zuplo test --endpoint "${{
          needs.deploy-staging.outputs.staging-url }}"

  deploy-production:
    needs: test-staging
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      ZUPLO_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ZUPLO_API_KEY }}
    # Require manual approval
    environment: production

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Deploy to production
        run:
          npx zuplo deploy --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" --environment production

This workflow:

1. Deploy to staging — Every push to main deploys to staging
2. Test staging — Run your full test suite against staging
3. Wait for approval — The production job waits for manual approval
4. Deploy to production — After approval, deploy to production

Setting Up Manual Approval

Create a GitHub environment with required reviewers:

1. Go to Settings > Environments > New environment
2. Name it production
3. Check Required reviewers and add approvers
4. Save the environment

When the workflow reaches the production job, it pauses until an approver clicks Review deployments in the Actions UI.

Adding More Stages

Add additional environments like QA or UAT:

Code
 
jobs:
  deploy-staging:
    # ...

  test-staging:
    # ...

  deploy-qa:
    needs: test-staging
    environment: qa
    # ...

  test-qa:
    needs: deploy-qa
    # ...

  deploy-production:
    needs: test-qa
    environment: production
    # ...

Next Steps

• Combine with tag-based releases for version control
• Add local testing before any deployment