CircleCI Fundamentals

CircleCI executes pipelines from .circleci/config.yml.

Core Concepts

• Workflow: Pipeline orchestration.
• Job: Task bundle with steps.
• Executor: Runtime (Docker, machine, macOS).
• Orbs: Reusable CircleCI packages.
• Contexts: Shared secure environment variables.

Best Practices

• Reuse commands/executors for consistency.
• Cache dependencies with stable keys.
• Keep jobs parallel where possible.
• Scope contexts by environment and team.