GitHub Actions CI/CD for Spring Boot — Complete Setup

What We're Building

A complete CI/CD pipeline that:

1. Runs tests on every PR
2. Builds a Docker image on merge to main
3. Pushes to Azure Container Registry
4. Deploys to Azure Container Apps

The Workflow File

Create .github/workflows/ci-cd.yml:

name: CI/CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
        with:
          distribution: 'temurin'
          java-version: '21'
          cache: 'maven'
      - run: mvn verify

  build-and-deploy:
    needs: test
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
        with:
          distribution: 'temurin'
          java-version: '21'
          cache: 'maven'
      - run: mvn package -DskipTests
      - uses: azure/docker-login@v1
        with:
          login-server: $
          username: $
          password: $
      - run: |
          docker build -t $/myapp:$ .
          docker push $/myapp:$

Dockerfile

FROM eclipse-temurin:21-jre-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY target/*.jar app.jar
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "app.jar"]

Setting Up Secrets

Go to your repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions:

Pro Tips

• Cache Maven dependencies — the cache: 'maven' option saves 2-3 minutes per build
• Use matrix builds to test on Java 17 and 21 simultaneously
• Add a concurrency group to cancel outdated deployments
• Never skip tests in CI — if they're too slow, fix them, don't skip them

This pipeline handles 90% of Spring Boot deployment needs. Extend it with integration tests, security scanning, and blue-green deployments as you scale.