Jenkins is the automation server that teams use to build, test, and deploy their software automatically. Every time a developer pushes code, Jenkins can run the tests, build the app, and deploy it — without anyone doing it by hand. If you have ever deployed a project manually and thought "there must be a better way", Jenkins is that better way, and it is the most widely used tool in its category.

How does Jenkins work? You install Jenkins on a server, connect it to your Git repository, and define a pipeline — a set of steps written in a Jenkinsfile — that says what should happen when code changes. A typical pipeline checks out the code, installs dependencies, runs the tests, builds the app, and deploys it. If any step fails, Jenkins tells you immediately, so bugs are caught before they reach users. Jenkins has thousands of plugins, so it can work with almost any language, tool, or cloud.

Jenkins is a good fit for beginners because the idea is simple, even if the tool is powerful.…