Azure Pipelines Documentation

Overview

Azure Pipelines is a cloud service that supports CI/CD to build, test, and deploy your code to any platform. It works with any language, any platform, and any cloud.

Fully hosted or self‑hosted agents
Parallel jobs and matrix builds
Integration with GitHub, Azure Repos, Bitbucket, and more

Getting Started

Follow these steps to create your first pipeline:

Navigate to your Azure DevOps project.
Select Pipelines → Create Pipeline.
Choose the repository source (e.g., Azure Repos Git).
Select Starter pipeline or configure a azure-pipelines.yml file.
Save and run the pipeline.

trigger:
- main

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- script: echo Hello, Azure Pipelines!
  displayName: 'Run a one-line script'

YAML Basics

Azure Pipelines uses a YAML syntax to declare the pipeline structure. Key concepts:

trigger – defines branches that automatically start a run.
pr – defines pull‑request validation triggers.
stages, jobs, steps – hierarchical execution units.
pool – agent specification.

stages:
- stage: Build
  jobs:
  - job: Compile
    steps:
    - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
      inputs:
        command: 'build'
        projects: '**/*.csproj'
- stage: Test
  dependsOn: Build
  jobs:
  - job: UnitTests
    steps:
    - task: VSTest@2
      inputs:
        testSelector: 'testAssemblies'
        testAssemblyVer2: '**/*Tests.dll'

Built‑in Tasks

Azure Pipelines provides over 150 built‑in tasks. Below is a quick reference for the most common ones.

Task	Purpose	Typical Use
`DotNetCoreCLI@2`	Run .NET Core commands	Restore, build, test, publish
`NodeTool@0`	Install a specific Node.js version	Build JavaScript projects
`CopyFiles@2`	Copy files to a target folder	Prepare artifacts
`PublishBuildArtifacts@1`	Publish artifacts for release pipelines	Share binaries, packages

Variables & Secrets

Variables can be defined at pipeline, stage, or job level. Secrets are stored securely.

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'
  npmVersion: '8.x'

steps:
- task: Npm@1
  inputs:
    command: 'install'
    workingDir: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)'
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: $(npmToken)   # secret variable

Triggers

Control when pipelines run using trigger, pr, and schedule.

# Trigger on any push to main or develop
trigger:
  branches:
    include:
    - main
    - develop

# PR validation only for feature/* branches
pr:
  branches:
    include:
    - feature/*

# Nightly build at 02:00 UTC
schedules:
- cron: '0 2 * * *'
  displayName: Nightly Build
  branches:
    include:
    - main
  always: true

Deployments

Deploy to Azure, Kubernetes, or any target using release pipelines or multi‑stage YAML.

stages:
- stage: Deploy
  dependsOn: Test
  jobs:
  - deployment: WebApp
    environment: 'prod'
    strategy:
      runOnce:
        deploy:
          steps:
          - task: AzureWebApp@1
            inputs:
              azureSubscription: 'MySubscription'
              appName: 'my-webapp'
              package: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/drop/**/*.zip'

Best Practices

Keep pipelines declarative and version‑controlled.
Use templates to reuse common logic.
Separate build and release concerns.
Leverage caching for faster builds.
Validate pull requests with short‑lived pipelines.

# Example of a reusable template
# templates/build.yml
parameters:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'restore'
    projects: '**/*.csproj'

# In main pipeline
extends:
  template: templates/build.yml
  parameters:
    vmImage: 'windows-2022'

Reference

For detailed documentation, visit the official Microsoft Docs site.