Azure DevOps Pipelines is a cloud-based service provided by Microsoft that allows you to continuously build, test, and deploy your applications. It is a part of the Azure DevOps Services (formerly known as Visual Studio Team Services) suite, which encompasses various tools and services for software development and collaboration.

With Azure DevOps Pipelines, you can define a series of tasks and steps to automate the process of building, testing, and deploying your code, resulting in a streamlined and efficient development workflow. The pipelines are represented as YAML files, which are versioned alongside your codebase, allowing you to track changes to your build and deployment configurations over time.

Key features of Azure DevOps Pipelines include:

1. Continuous Integration (CI): Azure Pipelines enables you to automatically build and test your code whenever changes are pushed to the repository. This helps to identify issues early in the development process and ensure that the codebase is always in a deployable state.

2. Continuous Deployment (CD): You can set up automated deployment pipelines that push your application to various environments, such as staging and production, after successful CI builds. This minimizes the manual effort involved in the deployment process and reduces the risk of human errors.

3. Cross-platform support: Azure Pipelines can build and deploy applications for various platforms, including Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

4. Integration with popular version control systems: It integrates seamlessly with Git repositories (Azure Repos or external repositories) and provides built-in templates for common programming languages and frameworks.

5. Extensibility: Azure Pipelines supports various extensions and integrations from the Azure DevOps Marketplace, allowing you to customize your pipelines to suit your specific needs.

6. Deployment Gates: You can set up deployment gates, which are automated checks that validate the quality and stability of your application before it moves to the next stage. This ensures additional safety and control over deployments.

7. Release Approval: For critical environments like production, you can configure release approvals to require manual approval from designated stakeholders before a deployment proceeds.

To get started with Azure DevOps Pipelines, you typically need an Azure DevOps organization and project. From there, you can create and configure your pipelines using YAML or the visual designer.

Keep in mind that features and capabilities may evolve over time, so it’s always a good idea to refer to the official Microsoft Azure DevOps documentation for the most up-to-date information and instructions.