Browse guides

Jenkins hub: pipelines, shared libraries, and access control

Practical runbooks from the StackTrack support team for running Jenkins reliably in production.

Browse guides

See our Secure by Design approach

Jenkins hub

Browse by topic

Jump to the area you’re working on: standardising pipelines, choosing pipeline style, or tightening access controls.

Lock down Jenkins access and CI automation

Tighten permissions and authenticate automation properly—reduce risk, improve auditability, and avoid credential sprawl.

2 guides

Declarative pipelines or scripted pipelines?

A practical comparison of Jenkins pipeline styles—when to use each, trade-offs, and how to keep pipelines readable.

Standardise pipelines with shared libraries

Reusable building blocks for consistent Jenkins pipelines—reduce duplication and make change safer across teams.

2 guides

Recommended

Featured guides

Start here if you’re standardising pipelines or tightening security and access controls.

Standardise pipelines with shared libraries

Reusable building blocks for consistent Jenkins pipelines—reduce duplication and make change safer across teams.

Explore topic

Lock down Jenkins access and CI automation

Tighten permissions and authenticate automation properly—reduce risk, improve auditability, and avoid credential sprawl.

Explore topic

Guides

All Jenkins guides

A curated set of Jenkins articles from the StackTrack support team.

Declarative pipelines or scripted pipelines?
A practical comparison of Jenkins pipeline styles—when to use each, trade-offs, and how to keep pipelines readable.
Pipelines
Intro
5 min read
Popular
Create Jenkins shared libraries
Create a shared library to standardise pipeline steps, reduce duplication, and keep Jenkinsfiles maintainable.
Shared Libraries
Intro
8 min read
Updated
Jenkins shared library tutorial (advanced guide)
Advanced patterns for shared libraries: structure, versioning, testing, and safe rollout across multiple teams.
Shared Libraries
Advanced
12 min read
Updated
Restricting access in Jenkins
Lock down who can view, configure, and run jobs using role-based access patterns that scale across teams.
Security
Intermediate
7 min read
Popular
Create a service account to access Jenkins with CLI
Set up a dedicated service account for CLI/API access with scoped permissions and better auditability than personal accounts.
Automation
Intermediate
6 min read
New

Jenkins fundamentals

Jenkins in practice: pipelines, plugins, and operating at scale

Jenkins is an open-source automation server used for continuous integration and delivery. Teams use it to build, test, and deploy software across a wide range of languages and environments.

Where Jenkins shines is flexibility: you can model almost any workflow, integrate with most tooling, and run it in cloud, hybrid, or on-prem environments. The trade-off is operational complexity — pipelines sprawl, plugins drift, and access control is easy to get wrong without clear patterns.

What teams notice

Pipelines
Automate and streamline the software development lifecycle with feature-rich pipelines that improve speed, quality, and reliability.
Extensible Plugins
Choose from thousands of plugins to integrate with world-class third-party tools, cloud services, and testing frameworks.
Optimised Architecture
Jenkins intelligently separates workloads, processes webhooks, and delegates tasks to ephemeral agents; ensuring efficiency and reliability.
Multi-Platform Support
Build and deploy across multiple environments, from containers to legacy systems, using one unified platform.
Developer-Friendly Experience
Get faster feedback with real-time console logs, visual reporting, and instant notifications via Slack, Teams, or email.

Key areas to get right when running Jenkins in production

Pipeline standards

Keep Jenkinsfiles small and consistent. Prefer shared, versioned building blocks over copy/paste so changes are reviewable and safe to roll out.

Shared libraries governance

Shared libraries reduce drift — if they’re treated like a product. Version releases, test changes, and introduce updates in a controlled way across teams.

Access control and separation

Most Jenkins incidents and leaks are permission problems. Separate who can configure from who can run, and map access boundaries to team ownership (folders, roles, groups).

Credentials and secrets handling

Treat Jenkins as a consumer of secrets, not the source of truth. Scope credentials tightly, avoid long-lived tokens in job configs, and rotate + audit regularly.

Automation identities

Service accounts make audit trails and permissions manageable. Don’t automate with personal accounts; use dedicated identities with least privilege for CLI/API workflows.

Change control for plugins and upgrades

Unplanned plugin drift causes outages. Pin versions, review updates on a schedule, and test upgrades in a staging controller before production.

Related guides

Declarative pipelines or scripted pipelines?
A practical comparison of Jenkins pipeline styles—when to use each, trade-offs, and how to keep pipelines readable.
Pipelines
Intro
5 min read
Popular
Create Jenkins shared libraries
Create a shared library to standardise pipeline steps, reduce duplication, and keep Jenkinsfiles maintainable.
Shared Libraries
Intro
8 min read
Updated
Restricting access in Jenkins
Lock down who can view, configure, and run jobs using role-based access patterns that scale across teams.
Security
Intermediate
7 min read
Popular

DevOps Maturity Assessment

Understand your current state and get a tailored improvement plan.

Takes ~3–5 minutes•No email required•Secure by Design

Start Assessment

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Need hands-on help with Jenkins?

If you’re dealing with upgrades, security hardening, or unreliable builds, we can help.

Talk to an engineer

Build secure, automated infrastructure without slowing delivery.

Platform engineering, DevOps and managed services for modern software teams.

Talk to the team Book a meeting

Secure by Design

Security controls embedded into delivery, not bolted on later.

Servana Managed Services Ltd is registered in England and Wales with number #10551720 and VAT registered with number GB-284560287. StackTrack Inc is incorporated in Delaware, United States.