Concourse, an open-source CI/CD tool, has gained popularity among developers and organizations seeking to streamline their software development workflows. However, upon closer inspection, some of its design choices may not align with the needs of modern projects. In this article, we’ll explore five key reasons why Concourse might not be the best fit for your git-based CI/CD needs.
Firstly, Concourse relies on repository polling instead of event-driven pipeline starts. This approach can lead to increased first pipeline start times due to the poll rate, which may cause delays in critical build and deployment processes. Furthermore, as the number of projects and pipelines grows, this polling mechanism can spam the git server with unnecessary requests, potentially causing performance issues.
Secondly, finding a specific pipeline related to a commit, merge request, or deployment can be a tedious process within Concourse. Navigating through multiple builds and menus requires more effort than expected, making it challenging to manage and track pipelines efficiently. Thirdly, Concourse’s authentication mechanism for accessing the git server is separate from its pipeline management system. This separation leads to limitations in roles like maintainer or administrator, which can result in a lack of fine-grained access control. Moreover, there is no distinction between secret access levels, making it possible for anyone with access to modify pipelines without committing changes.
Fourthly, Concourse’s metadata and credential retrieval processes involve multiple additional steps, each starting an additional container that incurs overhead. This complexity can slow down pipeline execution and make maintenance more challenging.
Lastly, the sheer size of Concourse’s pipeline configuration can be overwhelming, requiring excessive setup and customization for your specific environment. This surplus of configuration can distract from the actual business logic you want to implement in your pipelines, making it harder to achieve your desired outcomes.

In conclusion, while Concourse has its strengths, these five issues highlight some of the challenges that arise when using it for git-based CI/CD. As you weigh the pros and cons, consider alternative solutions that better suit your project’s needs and workflows.