Continuous Delivery
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Continuous Delivery means your code is always packed up and ready to ship — like a pizza that's fully cooked and sitting in a warm box. A human still decides exactly when to open the door and hand it over, but the pizza is always ready to go the moment someone says the word.
Real Talk
Continuous Delivery is a software engineering practice where code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for a release to production. The key distinction from Continuous Deployment is that a human approval step exists before the final release.
When You'll Hear This
"Continuous Delivery means one-click deploys — the pipeline does the heavy lifting." / "We practice Continuous Delivery: the button exists, but a human pushes it."
Related Terms
CD (Continuous Delivery / Continuous Deployment)
CD is what happens after CI checks your homework — it automatically delivers your finished work to the real world.
CI (Continuous Integration)
CI is like a robot assistant that instantly checks your homework every time you hand it in.
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment is like Continuous Delivery but with no one at the door — the pizza delivers itself the moment it's ready.
Pipeline
A pipeline is like an assembly line at a factory.
Release
A release is an official versioned snapshot of your software that you hand to the world.