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


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Tuna

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

👏 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!


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Tuna