How to Build a Simple CI/CD Pipeline Using GitHub Actions on a VPS

A software developer has detailed how to set up a lightweight CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to automate deployments of a Next.js app to a personal VPS. The pipeline consists of four sequential jobs — lint, security scan, Docker image build, and deployment — where each step must pass before the next begins. Security scanning is handled by Trivy, which checks for critical and high CVEs on every push and blocks the build if a fix is available, using the ignore-unfixed flag to avoid halting deployments over unresolvable vulnerabilities. Once the image passes all checks, it is pushed to GitHub's container registry and deployed to the VPS via SSH using Docker Compose. The author argues this approach delivers the same deployment convenience as managed platforms like Vercel while giving developers full visibility and control over what happens between a git push and a live container.