Continuous delivery
Also known as CD, Continuous delivery practice
Definition
Continuous delivery is a software development approach in which changes are kept in a releasable state through automated build, test, and delivery practices. A production release may still require a human decision.
Keep software ready to release
Continuous delivery treats a release as a routine decision because the software has already passed an automated path of checks. The team integrates changes frequently, keeps the main branch healthy, and makes failures visible soon after they occur.
Continuous deployment goes one step further by automatically sending qualifying changes to production. Continuous delivery can include that practice, but it does not require it. A product, safety, or compliance decision may remain in the release process.
Practices that support it
Teams usually need version control, repeatable builds, automated tests, environment consistency, and a fast feedback loop. Small changes make failures easier to isolate. Feature flags can separate deploying code from exposing a feature to every user.
Automation alone does not create continuous delivery. If a pipeline is slow, flaky, or difficult to repair, developers may avoid using it or batch changes around it. Reliability of the delivery process is part of the practice.
Measure the system around it
Deployment frequency and change lead time show movement. Failed change rate and recovery time show what happens when a release causes trouble. Review timing and rework can reveal friction before a deployment is attempted.
Weave helps connect those engineering signals so teams can improve the workflow that makes frequent, dependable delivery possible.
How this relates to Weave
Weave gives teams visibility into the pull request and code patterns that support a continuous delivery workflow. Its analytics can help investigate review time, rework, and delivery changes alongside the automation that moves code toward release.
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