Building a CI/CD Pipeline for Flutter Using GitHub Actions

In this post, I'll walk through how I built a complete CI/CD pipeline for a Flutter app using GitHub Actions. From automated testing and version bumping to deploying builds to TestFlight and Google Play, this setup has helped streamline development and improve reliability across our dev-to-release workflow.

Why CI/CD?

As our app scaled and more contributors got involved, we needed a way to reduce manual errors, enforce quality gates, and ensure consistency in every release. CI/CD gave us that automation and confidence.

Key Features of the Pipeline

• Auto-run tests on pull requests
• Auto-version bump on merges to dev
• Build and deploy to Firebase App Distribution, TestFlight, or Play Store
• Linting and static analysis

GitHub Actions Workflow Breakdown

1. Trigger: Runs on pull_request and push to dev or main
2. Setup Flutter: Uses subosito/flutter-action
3. Install Dependencies: flutter pub get
4. Run Tests: Unit and widget tests
5. Lint: Static analysis with flutter analyze
6. Version Bump: If merged to dev, auto-increments version
7. Build APK/AAB/IPA: Depending on the platform
8. Deploy: Upload to distribution services

Results

• Saved ~1 hour per release
• Fewer human errors
• Faster feedback on PRs

This setup has evolved, but it's rock solid for small to medium teams. I'll go deeper into the auto-version bumping part in a dedicated guide.