Glossary / Developer basics
Glossary · Developer basics · checked Oct 24, 2026
CI (continuous integration)
Short answerCI is a server that builds and tests your code on every push. GitHub Actions, GitLab CI and similar services run the jobs on fresh machines.
Why it matters
Fresh machines start with empty caches, so every CI run that does not cache dependencies downloads them again, which is a big share of crates.io and npm download counts.
Our number
Every one of our iPhone apps is built, screenshotted and submitted from a GitHub Actions macOS runner, because we develop on Windows.
Go deeper on this site
Where it shows up here
It appears on 379 pages of this site: 346 Crate pages, 16 Articles, 4 The Manual, 4 Guides, 3 Free tools, 2 paths, 1 App Store page, 1 Service, 1 Open source, 1 service. A few to start with:
- Rust, LLMs, AI agents and app dev, with the receipts.
- App Store review time: 64 real decisions, median 73 hours
- The Manual.
- Q.App stuck in "Waiting for Review": how long is normal, and when to worry
- Step-by-step guides.
- How to create an App Store Connect API key and use it in CI
- How many real users does your crate have?
- Cron expression translator.
Sources
- GitHub Actions documentation: docs.github.com/en/actions (checked Oct 24, 2026)
Related terms
Up next
Go deeperHow CI inflates download countsThe page on this site that does the most with this term.Read it next →Also worth your time
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