Travis CI Cheat Sheet

Reference for .travis.yml build lifecycle, language environments, stages, and deployment configuration.

1 PageBeginnerFeb 10, 2026

Basic .travis.yml

Minimal configuration for a Node.js project.

yaml

language: node_jsnode_js:  - "20"  - "18"install:  - npm ciscript:  - npm testcache:  directories:    - node_modules

Build Lifecycle Phases

Order of phases Travis CI executes per build.

before_install- Commands run before dependency installation (e.g. apt-get, nvm use)
install- Installs project dependencies
before_script- Setup commands run before the main script phase
script- Main build/test commands; a failure here fails the build
after_success / after_failure- Runs based on the result of the script phase
deploy- Deployment provider configuration triggered after a successful build

Stages & Deployment

Defining ordered stages and a deploy provider.

yaml

jobs:  include:    - stage: test      script: npm test    - stage: deploy      script: skip      deploy:        provider: pages        skip_cleanup: true        github_token: $GITHUB_TOKEN        local_dir: dist        on:          branch: main

Pro Tip

Set 'dist: jammy' (or your preferred Ubuntu release) explicitly rather than relying on the default image, since the default distribution can change and silently break builds.

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