Deployment & DevOps

Overview

Deployment & DevOps covers the tooling, standards, and processes the Open edX community uses to build, test, and ship software — cookiecutter templates for new services and MFEs, shared webpack/jest build configuration, CI/CD standards, repository health checks, and end-to-end testing.

This is the developer experience layer: what it feels like to create a new Open edX project, maintain it over time, and contribute upstream.

Current State (2026)

• Cookiecutters: edx-cookiecutters provides templates for IDAs (Django), MFEs (React), XBlocks, and Django plugins; npx @openedx/frontend-build sets up MFE build tooling
• frontend-build: Shared webpack, jest, and ESLint configuration for all Open edX MFEs; MFEs depend on it for consistent tooling
• edx-repo-health: Automated checks that repositories meet Open edX standards (CI config, license, dependencies, etc.)
• Cypress: cypress-e2e-tests provides end-to-end test infrastructure for platform-level integration testing
• CI standard: GitHub Actions used for all openedx org repos; common workflows defined in .github/ templates

Architecture

• Cookiecutter templates: Python-based project generators; developers run cookiecutter gh:openedx/edx-cookiecutters with a template name
• frontend-build: NPM package providing shared webpack, jest, Babel, ESLint config; MFEs extend it rather than configuring from scratch
• Repo health: pytest-repo-health runs checks as pytest tests; GitHub Actions enforce standards across all repos
• E2E tests: Cypress tests run against a full Tutor-deployed platform; used for regression testing across releases

Relevant Repositories

Repository	Role in This Feature	Activity Level	Notes
openedx/edx-cookiecutters	Project templates for IDAs, MFEs, XBlocks, plugins	Medium	Onboarding tool
openedx/frontend-build	Shared webpack/jest/ESLint for MFEs	High	Build foundation
openedx/frontend-template-application	Starter MFE template	Medium	MFE scaffold
openedx/edx-repo-health	Repository standards checker	Medium	CI enforcement
openedx/cypress-e2e-tests	End-to-end test suite	Medium	Platform regression
openedx/code-annotations	PII and toggle annotation tooling	Low	Compliance tooling

Recent Changes

• frontend-build ongoing updates for React 19 / webpack modernization
• Cypress test suite expanding coverage

History

Origin

• Year introduced: ~2014–2015 (cookiecutters first used; build tooling evolved with edX)
• Initial implementation: Shell scripts and manual setup; cookiecutters introduced for consistency as the number of repos grew
• Context: As edX decomposed from a monolith to many services and MFEs, consistent tooling became critical for developer productivity

Key Milestones

Year	Milestone	Teams / People Involved
~2015	edx-cookiecutters introduced	Unknown
~2018–2019	frontend-build created for MFE tooling consistency	Unknown
~2020	edx-repo-health for automated standards checking	Unknown
~2022	Cypress e2e tests established	Unknown

People Who Shaped This Area

• Engineering: Unknown — open question for interview
• Product: N/A (infrastructure/tooling)
• Design: N/A

Open Questions

• [ ] When were cookiecutter templates introduced and who standardized them?
• [ ] What drove the creation of frontend-build as a shared config package?
• [ ] What are the most common deviations from the cookiecutter standards in practice?
• [ ] How does the CI pipeline work for testing MFEs against different Open edX named releases?
• [ ] What are the biggest friction points in the Open edX developer onboarding experience?