Continuous integration framework for development of software for EMV-based card present transaction processing

A continuous integration framework for developing software for transaction processing and method for using the same are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises generating a trusted artifact with a forward immutable continuous integration (CI) implemented as a build pipeline, wherein the artifact comprises updated software comprising payment processing code with an EMV vector kernel for processing of EMV-based card present transactions; and in response to the software update, performing end-to-end testing of EMV card present transactions using code commits from one or more code repositories, wherein the end-to-end testing comprises executing the code commits that includes executing payment processing code for processing EMV-based card present transactions with an EMV vector kernel and one or more emulated EMV cards, and running tests against the executing code commits to validate behavior the payment processing code including the EMV vector kernel, wherein the tests comprise running one or more emulated EMV cards against the vector kernel as part of one or more emulated EMV-based card present transactions and monitoring communications related to the one or more emulated EMV-based card present transaction communications.