To put it simply, a continuous integration (or CI) server is a dedicated machine with the sole purpose of running builds, that is, it will continuously integrate the new build into a given system. Generally, CI servers work by creating an HTTP server and listening for data to be sent to it. Then, HTTP clients can post data to this server, triggering the server to start the build. For instance, you could tell GitHub to trigger your CI server on every commit (http://gswg.io#github-webhooks), then use Grunt on your CI to continuously perform tasks (such as analyzing, compiling, testing, and deploying your build) as new code arrives. When set up correctly, the act of committing to the main branch in your repository could analyze, compile, test, and deploy your application. This streamlined approach to deployment is highly valuable as it reduces development iteration time. See this Wikipedia page for a list of continuous integration servers http://gswg.io#ci-list.