---
title: "Build releases only in CI and verify them · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy/build-in-ci-and-verify
updated: 2026-10-21
licence: "CC BY 4.0"
licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
---

# Build releases only in CI and verify them before deploy

By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers). Updated 2026-10-21.

For AI agents: [llms.txt](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) is a short guide that sends you to the rules your problem needs, and [rules.json](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/rules.json) holds every rule of this playbook as JSON.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Build, test and deploy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy)
- Rule: Build every release in the CI service from a reviewed commit, with signed provenance. Deploy or publish only a build whose provenance names your repository.
- How: A release built on a laptop can hold code nobody reviewed. Build it in the hosted CI job, and attach a signed statement of the repository, commit and workflow that made it. The SLSA framework calls this Build Level 2. Tools such as GitHub artifact attestations or Sigstore's cosign create and verify it. The deploy step verifies the statement before the switch and stops when it fails. Publish packages as [publish your packages without stored tokens](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/supply-chain-and-setup/trusted-publishing) says. The bill of materials and release signature follow [Publish what is in each release](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/supply-chain-and-setup/sbom-and-provenance).
- Check: Build a release on a laptop and try to deploy it. The deploy stops because verification fails, and the same release built in CI deploys.

## Examples

**Using these examples:** they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

### YAML example

```yaml
# GitHub Actions: sign provenance for the build. Pin the action to a full commit hash.
permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write
  attestations: write
steps:
  - run: npm ci && npm run build && tar -czf shop.tar.gz dist
  - uses: actions/attest@<full-commit-hash> # v4
    with:
      subject-path: shop.tar.gz
```

### Shell example

```sh
# Deploy script: refuse anything this repository's CI did not build
gh attestation verify shop.tar.gz -R example/shop || { echo "FAIL: no valid provenance"; exit 1; }
```

## Sources

- [SLSA v1.1 security levels](https://slsa.dev/spec/v1.1/levels)
- [GitHub artifact attestations](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/concepts/security/artifact-attestations)

## Related rules

- [Publish your packages without stored tokens](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/supply-chain-and-setup/trusted-publishing) in Security testing
- [Publish what is in each release](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/supply-chain-and-setup/sbom-and-provenance) in Security testing

**For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `<a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy/build-in-ci-and-verify">Agent Wranglers engineering playbook</a>`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.

- Previous: [Release to a small share first](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy/staged-rollouts)
- Next: [Roll out settings and data files like code](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy/staged-config-rollouts)
- [Build, test and deploy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy)