What is the difference between the process of automatic deployment of changes to production using continuous deployment and continuous delivery approaches?

The main difference between continuous delivery (CD) and continuous deployment (CD) lies in the automation of releasing changes into production:

• Continuous Delivery is a practice where changes automatically pass all testing and preparation stages, but the actual release to production is done manually. That is, the code is always ready to be released, but the decision to deploy is made by a person.

• Continuous Deployment is a more advanced level where, after successful passing of all tests and checks, changes are automatically deployed to production without human intervention.

Example:

• In continuous delivery, the team can press the "release" button after verifying that everything is ready.
• In continuous deployment, this step is automated, and new versions go to production immediately after successful testing.

Thus, continuous deployment is an extension of continuous delivery with full automation of the release process.