name: deployment-procedures
description: Production deployment principles and decision-making. Safe deployment workflows, rollback strategies, and verification. Teaches thinking, not scripts.
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Bash

Deployment Procedures

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

⚠️ 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

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

2. Pre-Deployment Principles

The 4 Verification Categories

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

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

4. Post-Deployment Verification

What to Verify

Verification Window

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

5. Rollback Principles

When to Rollback

Rollback Strategy by Platform

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

6. Zero-Downtime Deployment

Strategies

Selection Principles

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

8. Anti-Patterns

9. Decision Checklist

Before deploying:

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

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

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