Build a Real-World CI/CD Pipeline for Node.js using Docker, GitHub Actions, and AWS EC2

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

Most CI/CD tutorials explain tools in isolation.
In real projects, everything has to work together — application code, containerization, CI/CD automation, and cloud infrastructure.

In this post, I’m sharing a production‑style CI/CD pipeline that deploys a Node.js application using Docker, GitHub Actions, and AWS EC2, end to end.

Why I Built This

When learning CI/CD, I noticed a common gap:

• One tutorial explains Docker.
• Another explains GitHub Actions.
• Another explains EC2.

Very few show how these pieces connect in a real deployment flow.

This project focuses on:

• Practical setup
• Real deployment sequence
• Automation that mirrors real DevOps teams

What This Project Demonstrates

• A simple Node.js application
• Dockerizing the application
• CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions
• Automated deployment to an EC2 instance
• A repeatable and maintainable workflow

This is not theory — it’s a working pipeline.

Architecture Overview

Developer pushes code
        ↓
GitHub repository
        ↓
GitHub Actions pipeline
  - Build Docker image
  - Run CI steps
  - Deploy to EC2
        ↓
Docker container running on EC2
        ↓
Application available to users