ranbot-ai/deployment-procedures

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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