> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://astronomer.io/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Automate preview Deployments with any CI/CD tool

A *preview Deployment* is an Astro Deployment that a CI/CD workflow automatically creates and deletes based on feature branches in your Git repository. The workflow creates the preview Deployment when you create a temporary feature branch and deletes it when you delete the branch. Astronomer recommends using preview Deployments if you regularly need to test a small set of dags on Astro before promoting those dags to a base, production Deployment. This lowers the infrastructure cost of Deployments that are dedicated to development and testing.

To implement this feature, you need a CI/CD workflow that:

* Creates the preview Deployment when you create a new branch.
* Deploys code changes to Astro when you make updates in the branch.
* Deletes the preview Deployment when you delete the branch.
* Deploys your changes to your base Deployment after you merge your changes into your main branch.

If you use GitHub Actions as your CI/CD tool, you can find preview Deployment templates as part of the [Astronomer GitHub action in the GitHub Marketplace](https://github.com/astronomer/deploy-action?tab=readme-ov-file#deployment-preview-templates). This GitHub action includes sub-actions for each of these four steps. To learn more, see [GitHub Actions templates for preview Deployments](/docs/astro/ci-cd-templates/github-actions-deployment-preview).

To configure your own automated workflow for preview Deployments with another CI/CD tool, use the following scripts. Each of the following four shell scripts is equivalent to the steps required to implement this feature with [GitHub Actions](/docs/astro/ci-cd-templates/github-actions-deployment-preview).

## Create a preview Deployment

In a Deployment preview CI/CD pipeline, you run this script when you create a feature branch off of the main branch of your Astro project.

```bash wrap theme={null}
# Install the Astro CLI
curl -sSL https://install.astronomer.io | sudo bash -s

# Get preview Deployment name
DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$(astro deployment inspect $DEPLOYMENT_ID --key configuration.name)"
BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=$BRANCH_NAME_$DEPLOYMENT_NAME
BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME// /_"

# Create template of Deployment to be copied
astro deployment inspect $DEPLOYMENT_ID --template > deployment-preview-template.yaml # automatically creates deployment-preview-template.yaml file

# Add name to Deployment template file
sed -i "s|  name:.*|  name: $BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME}|g"  deployment-preview-template.yaml

# Create new preview Deployment based on the Deployment template file
astro deployment create --deployment-file deployment-preview-template.yaml

# Get the ID of the new preview Deployment
PREVIEW_DEPLOYMENT_ID="$(astro deployment inspect -n $BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME --key metadata.deployment_id)"

# Copy connections, Airflow variables, and pools from the source Deployment
astro deployment connection copy --source-id $DEPLOYMENT_ID --target-id $PREVIEW_DEPLOYMENT_ID
astro deployment airflow-variable copy --source-id $DEPLOYMENT_ID --target-id $PREVIEW_DEPLOYMENT_ID
astro deployment pool copy --source-id $DEPLOYMENT_ID --target-id $PREVIEW_DEPLOYMENT_ID

# Deploy new code to the deployment preview
astro deploy -n $BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME
```

Creating a Deployment from a template does not copy the connections, Airflow variables, or pools from the source Deployment, so the script copies them separately with `astro deployment connection copy`, `astro deployment airflow-variable copy`, and `astro deployment pool copy`.

<Note>
  The copy commands fail if the source Deployment is hibernating. Resume the source Deployment before you run them.
</Note>

## Update a preview Deployment

In a Deployment preview CI/CD pipeline, you run this script whenever you make changes in your feature branch.

```bash wrap theme={null}
# Install the Astro CLI
curl -sSL https://install.astronomer.io | sudo bash -s

# Get preview Deployment name
DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$(astro deployment inspect $DEPLOYMENT_ID --key configuration.name)"
BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=$BRANCH_NAME_$DEPLOYMENT_NAME
BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME// /_"

# Deploy new code to the preview Deployment
astro deploy -n $BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME
```

## Delete a preview Deployment

In a Deployment preview CI/CD pipeline, you run this script when you delete your feature branch.

```bash wrap theme={null}
# Install the Astro CLI
curl -sSL https://install.astronomer.io | sudo bash -s

DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$(astro deployment inspect $DEPLOYMENT_ID --key configuration.name)"
BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=$BRANCH_NAME_$DEPLOYMENT_NAME
BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="$BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME// /_"

# Delete preview Deployment
astro deployment delete -n $BRANCH_DEPLOYMENT_NAME -f
```

## Deploy changes from a preview Deployment to a base Deployment

In a Deployment preview CI/CD pipeline, you run this script when you merge your feature branch into your main branch.

```bash wrap theme={null}
# Install the Astro CLI
curl -sSL https://install.astronomer.io | sudo bash -s

# Deploy new code to base Deployment
astro deploy $DEPLOYMENT_ID
```