/deployment-procedures

name: deployment-procedures
description: "Production deployment principles and decision-making. Safe deployment workflows, rollback strategies, and verification. Teaches thinking, not scripts."
risk: critical
source: community
date_added: "2026-02-27"

Deployment Procedures

> Deployment principles and decision-making for safe production releases. > **Learn to THINK, not memorize scripts.**

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⚠️ How to Use This Skill

This skill teaches **deployment principles**, not bash scripts to copy.

• Every deployment is unique
• Understand the WHY behind each step
• Adapt procedures to your platform

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1. Platform Selection

Decision Tree

What are you deploying?
│
├── Static site / JAMstack
│   └── Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages
│
├── Simple web app
│   ├── Managed → Railway, Render, Fly.io
│   └── Control → VPS + PM2/Docker
│
├── Microservices
│   └── Container orchestration
│
└── Serverless
    └── Edge functions, Lambda

Each Platform Has Different Procedures

| Platform | Deployment Method | |----------|------------------| | **Vercel/Netlify** | Git push, auto-deploy | | **Railway/Render** | Git push or CLI | | **VPS + PM2** | SSH + manual steps | | **Docker** | Image push + orchestration | | **Kubernetes** | kubectl apply |

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2. Pre-Deployment Principles

The 4 Verification Categories

| Category | What to Check | |----------|--------------| | **Code Quality** | Tests passing, linting clean, reviewed | | **Build** | Production build works, no warnings | | **Environment** | Env vars set, secrets current | | **Safety** | Backup done, rollback plan ready |

Pre-Deployment Checklist

• [ ] All tests passing
• [ ] Code reviewed and approved
• [ ] Production build successful
• [ ] Environment variables verified
• [ ] Database migrations ready (if any)
• [ ] Rollback plan documented
• [ ] Team notified
• [ ] Monitoring ready

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3. Deployment Workflow Principles

The 5-Phase Process

1. PREPARE
   └── Verify code, build, env vars

2. BACKUP
   └── Save current state before changing

3. DEPLOY
   └── Execute with monitoring open

4. VERIFY
   └── Health check, logs, key flows

5. CONFIRM or ROLLBACK
   └── All good? Confirm. Issues? Rollback.

Phase Principles

| Phase | Principle | |-------|-----------| | **Prepare** | Never deploy untested code | | **Backup** | Can't rollback without backup | | **Deploy** | Watch it happen, don't walk away | | **Verify** | Trust but verify | | **Confirm** | Have rollback trigger ready |

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4. Post-Deployment Verification

What to Verify

| Check | Why | |-------|-----| | **Health endpoint** | Service is running | | **Error logs** | No new errors | | **Key user flows** | Critical features work | | **Performance** | Response times acceptable |

Verification Window

• **First 5 minutes**: Active monitoring
• **15 minutes**: Confirm stable
• **1 hour**: Final verification
• **Next day**: Review metrics

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5. Rollback Principles

When to Rollback

| Symptom | Action | |---------|--------| | Service down | Rollback immediately | | Critical errors | Rollback | | Performance >50% degraded | Consider rollback | | Minor issues | Fix forward if quick |

Rollback Strategy by Platform

| Platform | Rollback Method | |----------|----------------| | **Vercel/Netlify** | Redeploy previous commit | | **Railway/Render** | Rollback in dashboard | | **VPS + PM2** | Restore backup, restart | | **Docker** | Previous image tag | | **K8s** | kubectl rollout undo |

Rollback Principles

1. **Speed over perfection**: Rollback first, debug later 2. **Don't compound errors**: One rollback, not multiple changes 3. **Communicate**: Tell team what happened 4. **Post-mortem**: Understand why after stable

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6. Zero-Downtime Deployment

Strategies

| Strategy | How It Works | |----------|--------------| | **Rolling** | Replace instances one by one | | **Blue-Green** | Switch traffic between environments | | **Canary** | Gradual traffic shift |

Selection Principles

| Scenario | Strategy | |----------|----------| | Standard release | Rolling | | High-risk change | Blue-green (easy rollback) | | Need validation | Canary (test with real traffic) |

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7. Emergency Procedures

Service Down Priority

1. **Assess**: What's the symptom? 2. **Quick fix**: Restart if unclear 3. **Rollback**: If restart doesn't help 4. **Investigate**: After stable

Investigation Order

| Check | Common Issues | |-------|--------------| | **Logs** | Errors, exceptions | | **Resources** | Disk full, memory | | **Network** | DNS, firewall | | **Dependencies** | Database, APIs |

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8. Anti-Patterns

| ❌ Don't | ✅ Do | |----------|-------| | Deploy on Friday | Deploy early in week | | Rush deployment | Follow the process | | Skip staging | Always test first | | Deploy without backup | Backup before deploy | | Walk away after deploy | Monitor for 15+ min | | Multiple changes at once | One change at a time |

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9. Decision Checklist

Before deploying:

• [ ] **Platform-appropriate procedure?**
• [ ] **Backup strategy ready?**
• [ ] **Rollback plan documented?**
• [ ] **Monitoring configured?**
• [ ] **Team notified?**
• [ ] **Time to monitor after?**

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10. Best Practices

1. **Small, frequent deploys** over big releases 2. **Feature flags** for risky changes 3. **Automate** repetitive steps 4. **Document** every deployment 5. **Review** what went wrong after issues 6. **Test rollback** before you need it

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> **Remember:** Every deployment is a risk. Minimize risk through preparation, not speed.

When to Use

This skill is applicable to execute the workflow or actions described in the overview.

Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
• Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
• Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety bound