Setting Up a CI/CD Pipeline to Kubernetes with GitHub Actions

I've set up 50+ GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines deploying to Kubernetes. Most teams spend weeks debugging permission issues, image pull errors, and failed deployments. Here's what actually works in production. Clone the companion repo : All code from this guide — RBAC manifests, blue-green workflow, Flagger canary config, kubeconfig generator, and a working Node.js app — is available at github.com/IAMDevBox/github-actions-k8s-deploy . Visual Overview: graph LR subgraph "CI/CD Pipeline" Code[Code Commit] --> Build[Build] Build --> Test[Test] Test --> Security[Security Scan] Security --> Deploy[Deploy] Deploy --> Monitor[Monitor] end style Code fill:#667eea,color:#fff style Security fill:#f44336,color:#fff style Deploy fill:#4caf50,color:#fff Why This Matters According to the 2024 State of DevOps Report, teams with mature CI/CD practices deploy 46x more frequently with 7x lower change failure rates. Yet I've seen teams abandon Kubernetes deployments after hitting GitHub Act