---
id: ci
title: Continuous Integration
---

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To ensure the quality of their software, teams often apply _Continuous
Integration_ workflows, commonly known as CI. With CI, teams continuously run a suite
of automated verifications against every change to the code-base. During CI,
teams may run many kinds of verifications:
* Compilation or build of the most recent version to make sure it
  isn't broken.
* Linting to enforce any accepted code-style standards.
* Unit tests that verify individual components work as expected
  and that changes to the codebase do not cause regressions in
  other areas.
* Security scans to make sure no known vulnerabilities are introduced
  to the codebase.
* And much more!

## EntCI

From our discussions with the Ent community, we have learned
that many teams using Ent already use CI and would like to enforce some
Ent-specific verifications into their workflows.

To support the community with this effort we have started this guide which
documents common best practices to verify in CI and introduces
[ent/contrib/ci](https://github.com/ent/contrib/ci) a GitHub Action
we maintain that codifies them.

### Verify all generated files are checked in

Ent heavily relies on code generation. In our experience, generated code
should always be checked into source control. This is done for two reasons:
* If generated code is checked into source control, it can be read
  along with the main application code. Having generated code present when
  the code is reviewed or when a repository is browsed is essential to get
  a complete picture of how things work.
* Differences in development environments between team members can easily be
  spotted and remedied. This further reduces the chance of "it works on my
  machine" type issues since everyone is running the same code.

If you're using GitHub for source control, it's easy to verify that all generated
files are checked in with the `ent/contrib/ci` GitHub Action.
Otherwise, we supply a simple bash script that you can integrate in your existing
CI flow.

<Tabs
    defaultValue="gh"
    values={[
        {label: 'GitHub Action', value: 'gh'},
        {label: 'Bash', value: 'bash'},
    ]}>
<TabItem value="gh">
Simply add a file named `.github/workflows/ent-ci.yaml` in your repository:

```yaml
name: EntCI
on:
  push:
  # Run whenever code is changed in the master.
    branches:
      - master
  # Run on PRs where something changed under the `ent/` directory.
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - 'ent/*'
jobs:
  ent:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3.0.1
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v3
        with:
          go-version: 1.18
      - uses: ent/contrib/ci@master
```

</TabItem>
<TabItem value="bash">

```bash
go generate ./...
status=$(git status --porcelain)
if [ -n "$status" ]; then
    echo "you need to run 'go generate ./...' and commit the changes"
    echo "$status"
    exit 1
fi
```

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