Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice where developers frequently merge code changes into a shared repository, triggering automated builds and tests to verify that the new code works correctly with the existing codebase. The goal is to detect integration problems early, rather than allowing incompatible changes to accumulate until a large release or development milestone.
A typical CI workflow connects source control with automated compilation, unit testing, code quality checks, and build validation. Teams use CI to identify broken dependencies, failed tests, and integration conflicts soon after changes are introduced, making problems easier to isolate and resolve. CI is a core component of modern DevOps practices and commonly works alongside Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment.
