deploy

name	deploy
description	Deployment and release management. Use when the user asks about "deployment", "CI/CD", "release", "shipping", "publishing", "deploy pipeline", "release process", or when setting up or managing deployment workflows. Covers CI/CD configuration, release strategies, and deployment validation.

Deployment

Guidelines for deploying and releasing software.

Workflow

Step 1: Pre-Deployment Checklist

Before deploying:

• All tests pass in CI
• Code review approved
• No known blocking issues
• Deployment plan documented (if non-trivial)
• Rollback strategy identified

Step 2: CI/CD Pipeline

• CI should be easily reproducible locally using the same source of truth
• CI failures are considered validation failures regardless of local results
• Pipelines should be fast — parallelize independent steps
• Keep pipeline configuration DRY (reusable workflows/actions)

Step 3: Release Strategy

Choose appropriate strategy for the change:

Strategy	When to use
Rolling	Low-risk changes, stateless services
Blue-green	Need instant rollback capability
Canary	High-risk changes, gradual rollout
Feature flags	Decoupling deploy from release

Step 4: Post-Deployment Validation

After deploying:

• Run smoke tests against the deployed environment
• Monitor error rates and key metrics
• Verify the change works as expected in production
• Keep rollback ready for a defined period

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Instead
Manual deployments	Automate with CI/CD
No rollback plan	Always have a rollback strategy
Skipping staging	Validate in a staging environment first
Big-bang releases	Deploy incrementally
Deploy on Friday	Deploy when you can monitor the result