lucid-fdn/production-readiness

Production Readiness

Audit a Lucid platform service for production readiness by checking environment variables, configuration, and observability setup.

Environment Variable Checklist

| Variable | Category | Required | Pass Condition | Fail Impact | |----------|----------|----------|---------------|-------------| | SENTRY_DSN | Sentry | Yes | Set to valid DSN | Error tracking disabled — blind to production errors | | SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN | Sentry | Warn | Set to valid token | Agent cannot query Sentry API — no automated triage | | OTEL_ENABLED | OTel | Warn | = "true" | No distributed traces — blind to cross-service issues | | OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT | OTel | Conditional | Not localhost in production | Traces go nowhere in production | | OTEL_HASH_SALT | PII | Yes (prod) | Set (any value) | Identity fields not hashed — PII leak in telemetry | | OPENMETER_ENABLED | Metering | Warn | = "true" | Usage metering disabled — billing inaccurate | | OPENMETER_API_KEY | Metering | Conditional | Set when OPENMETER_ENABLED=true | Metering events will fail delivery | | DATABASE_URL | Database | Warn | Set to valid URL | Metering queries unavailable | | LUCID_ENV | Environment | Warn | Set explicitly | Environment detection unreliable — use LUCID_ENV not NODE_ENV |

Audit Procedure

Step 1: Check Each Variable

For each variable in the checklist:

• pass: Variable is set and meets the pass condition
• warn: Variable is missing or misconfigured but service can still run (degraded)
• fail: Variable is missing and service will malfunction in production

Step 2: Conditional Checks

Some checks depend on others:

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT: Only check if OTEL_ENABLED=true. In production, fail if endpoint is localhost or unset.
• OPENMETER_API_KEY: Only check if OPENMETER_ENABLED=true. Fail if enabled but key missing.

Step 3: Calculate Score

score = (passing_checks / total_checks) × 100

Step 4: Determine Production Readiness

Production Ready: failing_checks = 0 AND score >= 70%

• 0 failures ensures no critical functionality is broken
• 70% threshold allows some warnings (e.g., optional features disabled)

Step 5: Report

Present results as:

1. Summary: environment, total checks, passing, warnings, failing, score
2. Per-check details: category, variable, status, message, fix instruction
3. Critical fixes: list of all failing checks with fix instructions

Step 6: Recommendations

Based on results:

• All passing: Service is production-ready. Verify with the conventions skill for instrumentation compliance.
• Warnings only: Service will run but with degraded observability. Address warnings before peak traffic.
• Any failures: Service is NOT production-ready. Fix all critical issues before deploying.

Environment-Specific Rules

Production

• OTEL_HASH_SALT is required (fail without it) — PII protection
• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT must NOT be localhost
• SENTRY_DSN is required (fail without it)

Staging

• Same as production but OTEL_HASH_SALT is warn-only (not fail)
• All features should be enabled for full testing

Development

• Most checks are warn-only
• Focus on SENTRY_DSN and DATABASE_URL for local development