CI/CD for a NestJS + Prisma + Postgres App with GitHub Actions

Lint, migrate Prisma, run e2e tests on Postgres, build, and ship NestJS.

NestJS with Prisma and Postgres is a common Node backend stack. This recipe applies Prisma migrations to a Postgres service container, runs unit and e2e tests, then builds and containerizes the app.

What the pipeline does

install deps with npm ci
apply migrations with prisma migrate deploy
lint with eslint
run unit and e2e tests
build with nest build and containerize

The workflow

The Postgres service backs Prisma during migrations and e2e tests. DATABASE_URL points at the service; nest build emits dist for the container.

.github/workflows/ci.yml

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
          POSTGRES_DB: nest
        ports: ["5432:5432"]
        options: >-
          --health-cmd "pg_isready" --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s --health-retries 5
    env:
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/nest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: npm
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx prisma migrate deploy
      - run: npm run lint
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run test:e2e
      - run: npm run build

Caching and speed

cache: npm restores installs and the Prisma engines cache. e2e suites that touch a real Postgres take time, so running on cheaper managed runners such as Latchkey (around 69% cheaper than GitHub-hosted) keeps PRs fast, and auto-retry covers a flaky database start or registry blip.

Deploying

Build a Docker image from dist and push it to your registry, then deploy to ECS, Kubernetes, or a Node host. Run prisma migrate deploy against production as a pre-release step before routing traffic.

Key takeaways

Back Prisma with a Postgres service so migrations and e2e tests are real.
Run prisma migrate deploy before tests in CI and before traffic in prod.
nest build emits dist that you containerize for deploy.