diff --git a/.github/workflows/README.md b/.github/workflows/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43af343
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# GitHub Actions Workflows
+
+## Setup
+- workloads run using [GitHub self-hosted runners](https://help.github.com/en/actions/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/about-self-hosted-runners)
+- project admins maintain a private Google Compute Engine VM for running tests
+  - VM should be at least n1-standard-4 with 50GB persistent disk
+  - instructions for setting up the VM can be found in repo settings under "Actions"
+  - ⚠️  WARNING: VM should be set up with no GCP service account
+    - external contributors could contribute malicious PRs to run code on our test VM. Ensure no service accounts or other secrets exist on the VM
+    - An empty GCP project should be used for extra security
+  - to set up dependencies, run the following commands:
+    ```
+    # install kubectl
+    sudo apt-get install kubectl
+
+    # install kind
+    curl -Lo ./kind "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/download/v0.7.0/kind-$(uname)-amd64" && \
+    chmod +x ./kind && \
+    sudo mv ./kind /usr/local/bin
+
+    # install skaffold
+    curl -Lo skaffold https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/latest/skaffold-linux-amd64 && \
+    chmod +x skaffold && \
+    sudo mv skaffold /usr/local/bin
+
+    # install docker
+    sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg2 software-properties-common && \
+    curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo apt-key add - && \
+    sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs) stable" && \
+    sudo apt update && \
+    sudo apt install docker-ce && \
+    sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}
+
+    # logout and back on
+    exit
+    ```
+  - ensure GitHub Actions runs as background service:
+    ```
+    sudo ∼/actions-runner/svc.sh install
+    sudo ∼/actions-runner/svc.sh start
+    ```
+
+
+---
+## Workflows
+
+### ci.yaml
+
+#### Triggers
+- commits pushed to master
+- PRs to master
+- PRs to release/ branches
+
+#### Actions
+- ensures kind cluster is running
+- builds all containers in src/
+- deploys local containers to kind
+  - ensures all pods reach ready state
+  - ensures HTTP request to frontend returns HTTP status 200
+- deploys manifests from /releases
+  - ensures all pods reach ready state
+  - ensures HTTP request to frontend returns HTTP status 200
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2661a8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+name: "Continuous Integration"
+on:
+  push:
+    # run on pushes to master or release/*
+    branches:    
+      - master
+      - release/*
+  pull_request:
+    # run on pull requests targeting master
+    branches:
+      - master
+jobs:
+  run-tests:
+    runs-on: self-hosted
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+    - name: Setup Cluster
+      run: |
+        set -x
+        kind delete cluster || true
+        kind create cluster
+        kubectl get nodes
+    - name: Deploy From Source
+      run: |
+        skaffold run
+    - name: Wait For Pods
+      timeout-minutes: 20
+      run: |
+        set -x
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/adservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/cartservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/checkoutservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/currencyservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/emailservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/frontend
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/loadgenerator
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/paymentservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/productcatalogservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/recommendationservice
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=500s deployment/shippingservice
+    - name: Smoke Test
+      timeout-minutes: 5
+      run: |
+        set -x
+        RESULT=" "
+        while [[ "$RESULT" != "  HTTP/1.1 200 OK" ]]; do
+          sleep 1
+          RESULT=$(kubectl exec deployments/frontend -- sh -c "wget --spider -S "http://frontend" 2>&1 | grep 'HTTP/'")
+          echo "front end response: $RESULT"
+        done
+        if [[ "$RESULT" != "  HTTP/1.1 200 OK" ]]; then 
+          exit 1
+        fi
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 124f5dd..0000000
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-sudo: required
-
-services:
-- docker
-
-install:
-- curl -Lo skaffold https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/v0.20.0/skaffold-linux-amd64
-- chmod +x skaffold
-- sudo mv skaffold /usr/local/bin
-
-script:
-- skaffold build --profile travis-ci
diff --git a/skaffold.yaml b/skaffold.yaml
index 665f80a..dfd6aeb 100644
--- a/skaffold.yaml
+++ b/skaffold.yaml
@@ -49,12 +49,6 @@ deploy:
     manifests:
     - ./kubernetes-manifests/**.yaml
 profiles:
-# "travis-ci" profile is used to build the images without
-# pushing them.
-- name: travis-ci
-  build:
-    local:
-      push: false
 # "gcb" profile allows building and pushing the images
 # on Google Container Builder without requiring docker
 # installed on the developer machine. However, note that