Azure Pipelines
What it is
Azure Pipelines is the Azure DevOps service that automates continuous integration (CI), continuous testing, and continuous delivery (CD). A pipeline is a repeatable set of instructions that can build, test, package, and deploy code to cloud, on-premises, VM, container, or platform-service targets.
Why it exists
Without automation, people repeat build and release steps differently and discover integration failures late. Pipelines make the process visible and repeatable, but the team must still choose safe triggers, protect secrets, review deployment permissions, and decide which tests are meaningful.
Key ideas
- CI: builds and tests a code change so problems appear before release.
- CD: promotes a deployable artifact through one or more environments. Continuous delivery does not require every production deployment to be automatic.
- Definition: pipelines can be defined in YAML or, in supported scenarios, classic UI definitions. YAML keeps the automation with the code and supports review.
- Trigger: a push, pull request, schedule, manual action, or another pipeline can start a run; see ci-trigger.
- Jobs, steps, and tasks: describe the work that runs; see jobs-steps.
- Agent: the machine that executes the job. Use Microsoft-hosted agents for standard ephemeral jobs or self-hosted agents when a job needs controlled network access or tools.
Northwind example
When Luis opens a pull request for Northwind’s ordering API, a pipeline restores dependencies, runs tests and security checks, and publishes a versioned build artifact only if the checks pass. A separate deployment stage releases that same artifact to test, then requires the team’s production approval rule. The pipeline does not make the code correct by itself: a skipped test, overly broad service connection, or unreviewed YAML change can still create risk.
Exam notes
- Pipeline = automation; it is not the source repository, a package feed, or a deployment approval by itself.
- A build artifact should be produced once and promoted through environments, rather than rebuilt differently for each environment.
- Agent capacity, image availability, and pricing change; confirm them from current Azure DevOps documentation before designing around them.
Related
pipeline-yaml · agent-pool · jobs-steps · build-artifact · pipeline-templates · github-actions · self-hosted-agent
Diagram
Diagrams courtesy of Microsoft Learn / Azure docs: azure/devops/pipelines/get-started/what-is-azure-pipelines