Indie Dev CI/CD Design — GitHub Actions + Firebase Auto-Deploy to Production
Push code, see it live in 5 minutes. That's the indie dev CI/CD ideal.
Basic Setup
# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy to Production
on:
push:
branches: [main]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Setup Flutter
uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
with:
flutter-version: '3.x'
channel: stable
cache: true # saves ~2 minutes per run
- name: Build Flutter Web
run: flutter build web --release --web-renderer canvaskit
- name: Deploy to Firebase Hosting
uses: FirebaseExtended/action-hosting-deploy@v0
with:
repoToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
firebaseServiceAccount: ${{ secrets.FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT }}
channelId: live
projectId: my-app-12345
Test → Build → Deploy in Order
jobs:
test:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
with: { cache: true }
- run: flutter test
deploy:
needs: test # only deploys when tests pass
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
with: { cache: true }
- run: flutter build web --release
- uses: FirebaseExtended/action-hosting-deploy@v0
with:
repoToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
firebaseServiceAccount: ${{ secrets.FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT }}
channelId: live
projectId: my-app-12345
Preview Deploy (for PR Reviews)
# Auto-generate a preview URL when a PR is opened
on:
pull_request:
branches: [main]
jobs:
preview:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
with: { cache: true }
- run: flutter build web --release
- uses: FirebaseExtended/action-hosting-deploy@v0
with:
repoToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
firebaseServiceAccount: ${{ secrets.FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT }}
# omit channelId → auto-deploys to pr-123 channel
projectId: my-app-12345
# preview URL is automatically posted as a PR comment
Deployment Verification Step
- name: Verify deployment
run: |
# Confirm the new commit hash is live
for i in 1 2 3 4; do
DEPLOYED=$(curl -s https://my-app.web.app/version.json | jq -r '.commit')
if [ "$DEPLOYED" = "${{ github.sha }}" ]; then
echo "✅ Deploy verified: $DEPLOYED"
exit 0
fi
echo "Waiting... ($i/4)"
sleep 15
done
echo "❌ Deploy verification failed"
exit 1
Summary
Basic setup → push to main → flutter build → firebase deploy (~5 min)
Test gate → needs: test ensures tests pass before deploy
Preview deploy → auto preview URL on every PR (faster reviews)
Deploy verify → poll version.json to confirm the new build is actually live
Set up CI/CD once and don't touch it. Only revisit when something breaks.