Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software development practice that automates the release process so that code changes can be deployed to production quickly, safely, and sustainably. CD ensures that every change to the codebase is automatically tested and prepared for deployment, minimizing manual intervention and reducing the risk of introducing bugs or errors in the live environment.

The core idea behind Continuous Delivery is that software should always be in a deployable state. After developers commit code changes to the version control system, automated testing ensures that these changes work as intended and do not break existing functionality. If the tests pass, the software is automatically packaged and can be deployed to production at any time.

CD builds on Continuous Integration (CI), where code is integrated into a shared repository several times a day. The difference is that in CD, these code changes are not only integrated but also prepared for deployment to production.

The benefits of Continuous Delivery include faster time to market, higher software quality, and the ability to respond quickly to user feedback. It reduces the risk of deployment errors by making the release process predictable and automated. Tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, and CircleCI are commonly used to implement CD pipelines.