Release Checklist
Sample template — pre-deploy, deploy, and post-deploy verification steps.
Service: service-name · Owner: team / on-call · Environment: Production
Before deploy
- Change is merged and green on Beta for at least 24h
- All CI checks pass (lint, typecheck, tests, Playwright)
- Database migrations reviewed and backward-compatible
- Environment variables / secrets added to the prod vault (Env Vars)
- Feature flags configured (default off for risky changes)
- Rollback plan confirmed (Production Rollback)
- Stakeholders notified in #releases
Deploy
- Tag the release:
git tag vX.Y.Z && git push --tags. - Trigger the production pipeline (or merge to the release branch).
- Watch the rolling deploy — confirm new tasks become healthy before old ones drain.
- Run migrations if not automated:
npm run db:migrate.
After deploy
- Health endpoint returns
200—curl https://_api.example.com_/health - Smoke-test the critical user path manually
- Error rate and latency normal in Observability
- No new alerts firing for 15 min
- Mark the release done in #releases and close the ticket
Rollback triggers
Roll back immediately (do not debug forward) if any of these hold:
| Signal | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Error rate | > 2% for 5 min |
| p95 latency | > 2x baseline |
| Health check | failing on > 1 task |
| Data integrity | any suspected corruption |