Deploy Checklist

Ship safely: verified build, observable release, reversible plan.

Workflow

1. Pre-flight — complete references/preflight.md (quality, security, config, docs). If the release changes any externally consumed surface, confirm the contract-guard compatibility statement exists; for versioned releases, notes and version bump per the release skill.
2. Rollback plan — write it before deploy (flag kill-switch, previous artifact, migration reverse).
3. Deploy — prefer staged rollout (staging → canary/partial → full) when available.
4. Watch — first-hour checks: health, error rate, latency, one critical user flow.
5. Decide — advance, hold, or roll back using explicit thresholds.
6. Close out — changelog/notes; remove temporary flags when safe; file follow-ups.

Constraints

• No production deploy without a stated rollback path.
• Do not treat “works on my machine / staging” as sufficient without post-deploy verification.
• Migrations: know whether they are backward-compatible with the currently running app.

Verification

• Preflight checklist green or exceptions documented
• Rollback plan written
• Post-deploy health + critical flow verified
• Go/hold/rollback decision recorded