Cirrus CI
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| Cirrus CI | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cirrus CI |
| Genre | Continuous integration |
Cirrus CI is a cloud-native continuous integration and continuous delivery service designed for testing and building software across virtual machines and container environments. Developed to integrate with distributed version control and hosted repository services, it automates build, test, and deployment pipelines for projects ranging from single-repository libraries to complex microservice architectures. Cirrus CI emphasizes declarative configuration, support for multiple platforms, and integration with popular source code hosting and issue-tracking systems.
Overview
Cirrus CI operates as a hosted CI/CD provider that interfaces with major source code hosting platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Phabricator. It supports workflows for projects that target platforms including Linux, Windows, macOS, and cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Cirrus CI competes with services like Travis CI, CircleCI, Jenkins (software), and GitHub Actions, while serving communities that maintain projects for ecosystems such as Rust (programming language), Python (programming language), Go (programming language), Node.js, and Dart. Organizations using Cirrus CI often integrate it with tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Ansible.
Features
Cirrus CI provides features typical of CI/CD systems: declarative task configuration, matrix builds, caching, artifact storage, and parallel execution. It offers first-class support for virtualization backends including QEMU, KVM, Hyper-V, and container runtimes such as Docker Engine and containerd. Advanced features include integration with code review workflows like Pull Requests on GitHub and merge request pipelines on GitLab, status reporting to GitHub Actions-style checks, and notification hooks to platforms such as Slack (software), Microsoft Teams, and PagerDuty. For projects requiring package publication, Cirrus CI can interface with package registries such as npm (software), PyPI, Maven Central, and Homebrew.
Architecture and Components
The architecture of Cirrus CI comprises orchestration, workers, and storage layers that interact with hosted repositories and cloud providers. Orchestrators schedule tasks, manage job dependencies, and report status to repository services like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket Server. Worker nodes run on virtual machines provisioned via cloud APIs from providers including Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines or on self-hosted runners that integrate with Kubernetes clusters. Storage components handle build caches, artifacts, and logs, often using object storage services such as Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage. Telemetry and observability are supported via integrations with systems like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, and Sentry (software).
Supported Languages and Platforms
Cirrus CI supports a broad range of programming languages and runtimes: C (programming language), C++, Java, Kotlin, Scala, Python (programming language), Ruby (programming language), PHP, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go (programming language), Rust (programming language), Dart (programming language), Swift (programming language), and Objective-C. It also supports platform-specific toolchains for Android (operating system), iOS, macOS, and embedded targets that rely on toolchains used by communities around ARM (computer architecture) and RISC-V. Build systems and package managers supported include Maven, Gradle, Bazel, CMake, Cargo (software), pip (package manager), and npm (software).
Integrations and Ecosystem
Cirrus CI integrates with version control and collaboration platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Phabricator. For issue tracking and project management, common integrations include Jira, Trello, and Asana. Observability and alerting integrations encompass Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, and PagerDuty. Artifact and package workflows link to Docker Hub, GitHub Packages, npm Registry, PyPI, and Maven Central. Security scanning and static analysis tools supported in pipelines include SonarQube, Snyk, Dependabot, Clang Static Analyzer, and Bandit (software). Deployment integrations enable CD to environments provisioned with Terraform, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and container platforms like Kubernetes and Docker Swarm.
Usage and Workflow
Users define build and test tasks declaratively in repository configuration files, which specify task triggers for events such as pushes, tags, and pull requests against services like GitHub and GitLab. Pipelines can be structured as directed acyclic graphs with dependencies, matrix strategies for cross-platform testing, and conditional execution rules. Artifacts produced by builds are stored and can be published to registries like npm (software), PyPI, or Docker Hub as part of CD stages. Secrets management and environment variables integrate with repository-level secrets stores and external vaults such as HashiCorp Vault. Typical workflows mirror those used in projects maintained by organizations like Mozilla Corporation, Google (company), Microsoft, and Facebook-related open-source communities.
History and Development
Cirrus CI emerged in the era following widespread adoption of hosted CI services, positioned among contemporaries such as Travis CI, CircleCI, and Drone (software). Its development tracked trends toward infrastructure-as-code, containerization, and multi-platform testing that characterized the DevOps movement and initiatives from organizations like Linux Foundation. Over time, Cirrus CI added support for cloud-native runtimes, self-hosted runners, and integrations with major cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. The project has been adopted by open-source communities associated with ecosystems like Kubernetes, Rust (programming language), and Flutter (software), influencing its feature set and platform support.
Security and Privacy Practices
Cirrus CI implements security practices typical of CI/CD providers: isolation of build environments using virtualization and containers, secrets redaction in logs, and fine-grained access controls integrated with identity providers such as GitHub OAuth and GitLab authentication. It supports audit logging and administrative controls to comply with organizational policies similar to standards promoted by ISO/IEC 27001 and guidance from National Institute of Standards and Technology. For artifact integrity and supply chain security, Cirrus CI pipelines can incorporate tools like Sigstore, in-toto, and The Update Framework to provide provenance and signing for releases.