In addition to the visual designer for release definitions, it is also possible to implement continuous deployment using YAML pipelines. When doing so, it is still recommended to differentiate between the build (CI) and release (CD) phases of a pipeline. The concept of stages is used to make this possible. A YAML pipeline can be divided into one or more stages. A stage can represent an environment such as test, acceptance, or production, but this isn't always true. If, in an application scenario, it makes sense to add extra stages such as pre-production or staging, this is possible. It is good practice to publish pipeline artifacts to earlier stages and to consume or download artifacts in later stages.
Multi-stage YAML pipelines are the new default for creating pipelines in Azure DevOps. Since working with YAML pipelines can have a steeper...