🔹 Step 1: Push Code to GitHub

• What happens?
  A developer commits code changes and pushes them to a branch (e.g., main or dev) on GitHub.

• Trigger: This push acts as a trigger for GitHub Actions.

• Example:

  git add .
  git commit -m "Added new API endpoint"
  git push origin main
  

🔹 Step 2: GitHub Action Workflow Starts

• What happens?
  GitHub Actions sees the push and starts a workflow (defined in .github/workflows/deploy.yml).

• Inside deploy.yml example:

  name: Deploy to AWS
  
  on:
    push:
      branches:
        - main
  
  jobs:
    build-and-deploy:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout Code
          uses: actions/checkout@v3
  

• Colorful Idea: Think of this as a pipeline button that gets pressed automatically after every push.

🔹 Step 3: Build / Test Phase

• What happens?
  GitHub Action runner checks your code, installs dependencies, runs tests, and builds the project.

• Example: (For Node.js app)

  - name: Install Dependencies
    run: npm install
    
  - name: Run Tests
    run: npm test
    
  - name: Build Project
    run: npm run build
  

• ✅ This ensures only tested and built code goes for deployment.

🔹 Step 4: Authenticate with AWS

• What happens?
  GitHub Action needs permission to talk to AWS. This is done via AWS Access Key & Secret Key stored in GitHub Secrets.

• Example:

  - name: Configure AWS Credentials
    uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
    with:
      aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
      aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
      aws-region: ap-south-1
  

• Colorful Analogy: This is like giving GitHub a VIP Pass to enter AWS.

🔹 Step 5: Deploy to AWS Service

Here’s where the magic happens 💫
Depending on your app, you may deploy to:

• EC2 (Virtual Machine)

• ECS/Fargate (Containers)

• Lambda (Serverless Functions)

• S3 + CloudFront (Static Websites)

• EKS (Kubernetes)

🟢 Example 1: Deploy to AWS S3 (Static Website)

- name: Deploy to S3
  run: aws s3 sync ./build s3://my-app-bucket --delete

👉 Uploads build files to S3 bucket for hosting.

🔵 Example 2: Deploy to ECS (Container App)

- name: Build Docker Image
  run: docker build -t my-app:latest .

- name: Push to ECR
  run: |
    aws ecr get-login-password --region ap-south-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <account_id>.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com
    docker tag my-app:latest <account_id>.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/my-app:latest
    docker push <account_id>.dkr.ecr.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/my-app:latest

- name: Update ECS Service
  run: |
    aws ecs update-service --cluster my-cluster --service my-service --force-new-deployment

👉 This builds a Docker image, pushes it to ECR, and tells ECS to deploy the new version.

🔴 Example 3: Deploy to AWS Lambda

- name: Zip & Deploy to Lambda
  run: |
    zip -r function.zip .
    aws lambda update-function-code --function-name my-lambda-fn --zip-file fileb://function.zip

👉 This uploads your code package to Lambda.

🔹 Step 6: Post Deployment Verification

• Run smoke tests or health checks to confirm the deployment worked.

• Example:

  - name: Verify Deployment
    run: curl -I https://myapp.com
  

✅ Ensures users get the updated version.

🔹 Step 7: Notifications (Optional)

• GitHub can notify via Slack, Teams, or Email when deployment succeeds/fails.

• Example:

  - name: Notify on Slack
    uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.23
    with:
      payload: '{"text":"🚀 Deployment successful!"}'
  

🌟 Visual Flow (Colorful Concept)

👨‍💻 Developer Push Code
       ⬇
⚡ GitHub Action Trigger
       ⬇
🛠️ Build & Test
       ⬇
🔐 Authenticate with AWS
       ⬇
🚀 Deploy to AWS (EC2 / ECS / Lambda / S3)
       ⬇
✅ Verify & Notify

👉 This is the end-to-end journey from GitHub to AWS Deployment.