Baseline CI Checker

Inspiration

As a solo developer, I often found myself worrying whether new features I shipped would actually work across all browsers. The web evolves so fast, and tracking compatibility manually can be frustrating. When I discovered the Baseline project, I saw an opportunity to build a tool that brings its data straight into CI workflows—helping developers like me avoid compatibility headaches.

What it does

Baseline CI Checker is a GitHub Action that automatically scans pull requests for unsupported web features. It uses the official Baseline dataset to flag non-baseline features before code is merged, saving time and preventing broken user experiences.

How I built it

Set up a GitHub Actions workflow (.yml) to trigger on pull requests.

Wrote Node.js/TypeScript scripts to parse code and compare features against the Baseline dataset.

Integrated the logic into CI so builds fail fast when non-baseline features are detected.

Focused on making reports clear and actionable for developers.

Challenges I ran into

Parsing feature usage across different files took longer than expected.

Aligning the Baseline dataset with real-world code patterns required extra mapping.

Balancing simplicity with flexibility—making the tool powerful but lightweight.

Accomplishments I’m proud of

Building a working CI pipeline from scratch that reliably checks compatibility.

Smooth GitHub Actions integration requiring minimal setup.

Creating a solo project that solves a real developer pain point.

What I learned

How to work with the Baseline dataset effectively.

The value of designing for developer experience (clear logs, simple setup).

That CI/CD can be more than just testing—it can actively improve code quality and compatibility.

What’s next

Expand checks to cover more languages and frameworks.

Add a dashboard view for browsing compatibility reports.

Package the tool as a npm module for local development use.

Built With

• actions
• baseline
• dataset
• features
• github
• node.js
• typescript
• web