I am wondering if I can use a CI system (like Jenkins) to run a prefect script instead of using the deployment mechanism as it is easier and more flexible for me to set up an environment in CI than using the deployment.yml. I can still use PREFECT_ORION_DATABASE_CONNECTION_URL to connect to the database so that I can check the job status in the dashboard. What loss would I have if I don’t use the deployment mechanism?

Deployment is mainly needed to run things on schedule or triggering them via API call on demand or running them on remote instances and triggering script directly gives you observability but you couldn't e.g. trigger it from Prefect UI without deployment, this post may help https://annageller.medium.com/declarative-dataflow-deployments-with-prefect-make-ci-cd-a-breeze-fe77bdbb58d4

So I think I can take the function of deployment as creating a job in Jenkins or other CI system. To me to use a CI system instead of deployment machanism is it provides some powerful features like run inside docker envrionment, credential management and email notification, chatops, etc.

Yup that's quite close to what this post dives deeper into

Thanks. Than I guess it's nothing wrong to run perfect with our existed CI system as it may provide extra flexibility than the

prefect-deployment

in our use case.