How to start an AWS CodePipeline

While not a difficult task to pull off, starting a pipeline in the AWS Console for CodePipeline does tend to be a confusing thing when somebody has never done it before.

The reason for this is the naming of the action. The AWS Console doesn’t have a big shiny “Start” button for you to click on. Instead, there is a button that stands out, in AWS Orange, named “Release change”.

So the steps to start an AWS CodePipeline are:

1. Log into the AWS Management Console.
2. Go to CodePipeline.
3. Click on the pipeline that you’d like to start.
4. Click Release change in the upper right-hand corner.
5. Check Release on the dialog that explains releasing changes.
6. Wait patiently as your pipeline runs!

While I understand the naming of the button to marry up with the action that you will ultimately accomplish when you click it, I still think it would be nice if the used more generic naming around what you’re trying to do, which is start the pipeline.