CI / CD

Every PR runs against its own fresh database branch cloned from your connected source — no shared staging that drifts, no test runs corrupting each other, no production credentials in CI.

Prerequisites

You need:

An Ardent account with one ready connector. If you do not have one yet, follow the Quickstart.
An API token stored as a CI secret named ARDENT_TOKEN.
The project and connector names you want CI to use.

Find project and connector names locally:

ardent project list
ardent connector list

GitHub Actions workflow

Copy this to .github/workflows/ardent-branch.yml, replacing my-project, my-connector, and npm test for your repo.

name: Test with Ardent branch

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      ARDENT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.ARDENT_TOKEN }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: "22"

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Install Ardent CLI
        run: npm install -g ardent-cli

      - name: Select project and connector
        run: |
          ardent project switch my-project
          ardent connector switch my-connector

      - name: Create database branch
        run: |
          BRANCH_NAME="pr-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}-${{ github.run_id }}"
          DATABASE_URL="$(ardent branch create "$BRANCH_NAME" --print-url)"
          if [ -z "$DATABASE_URL" ]; then
            echo "Ardent did not return a database URL" >&2
            exit 1
          fi
          echo "DATABASE_URL=$DATABASE_URL" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
          echo "ARDENT_BRANCH=$BRANCH_NAME" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"

      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Delete database branch
        if: always() && env.ARDENT_BRANCH != ''
        run: ardent branch delete "$ARDENT_BRANCH"

Why this shape works

ARDENT_TOKEN authenticates the CLI with no login step or stored session.
ardent project switch and ardent connector switch make the workflow predictable.
ardent branch create --print-url prints only the URL, so there’s no human output to parse.
The branch name includes both PR number and run ID so re-runs and concurrent jobs do not collide.
Cleanup runs with if: always() so failed tests still delete the branch.

Other CI providers

The steps are the same on any CI provider:

npm install -g ardent-cli
ardent project switch my-project
ardent connector switch my-connector
export DATABASE_URL="$(ardent branch create "$CI_BRANCH_NAME" --print-url)"
# run tests
ardent branch delete "$CI_BRANCH_NAME"

Store ARDENT_TOKEN in your CI provider’s secret manager. Do not commit tokens to the repository.

JSON variant

If your CI step wants more than the URL, use JSON output:

BRANCH_JSON="$(ardent branch create "$BRANCH_NAME" --format json)"
DATABASE_URL="$(node -e 'console.log(JSON.parse(process.argv[1]).branch_url)' "$BRANCH_JSON")"

Compared to shared staging

Full data, not schema-only: branches carry your real rows, not empty tables.
Isolation: each PR gets its own database.
Fast branch creation: once a connector is ready, branch creation is independent of source database size.
Clean teardown: branches can be deleted after each run and auto-suspend when idle.

Running destructive test suites rather than PR checks? See Regression testing.

Getting started

Examples

Connectors

Concepts

Help

Prerequisites

GitHub Actions workflow

Why this shape works

Other CI providers

JSON variant

Compared to shared staging

​Prerequisites

​GitHub Actions workflow

​Why this shape works

​Other CI providers

​JSON variant

​Compared to shared staging

Prerequisites

GitHub Actions workflow

Why this shape works

Other CI providers

JSON variant

Compared to shared staging