zlacker

It would call APIs directly. For example, I have a lot of release automation that integrates with AWS. Rather than requiring AWS specific actions, I could import the AWS sdk via node and make the calls myself.

A good exercise is to look at a simple but nontrivial build/test/release automation:

- on pull requests build & test, on tags build/test and release, and once a day release a nightly build.

- cache dependencies globally and build artifacts on each branch for incremental builds

- once daily, clear out artifacts on deleted branches or merged PRs

A script to do this would be around 100 lines and be readable/maintainable (if build/test or release change, it is shared by the different cases!). The script can have a main entrypoint that will dispatch to the runners as needed.

I know it sounds a lot like jenkins, but node has a much better ecosystem than groovy.