GitHub Actions CI/CD: A Painful Odyssey

The author recounts a frustrating journey building a complex CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions, involving multiple iterations and struggles with merge queues, inconsistent behavior, and security concerns. Challenges included enforcing status checks with merge queues, understanding the security model surrounding GITHUB_TOKEN, Docker container file permission and path issues, and the complexities of YAML workflows. Despite achieving a reduction in merge time, the author highlights the numerous hidden pitfalls and inconsistent behavior, advocating for improved usability and debugging in GitHub Actions.