vibe-production-mindset

name	vibe-production-mindset
description	Sets quality expectations for implementation — "imagine this serves 1 million users." Checks for observability, error handling, input validation, graceful degradation.
user-invocable	true

vibe-production-mindset

The gap between "works on my machine" and "works in production" is where incidents live.

When to Use This Skill

• Starting any implementation that will run in production
• When implementing API endpoints, data processing, or user-facing features
• Before declaring a feature "done"
• When the user cares about production quality

When NOT to Use This Skill

• Prototypes or spikes explicitly marked as throwaway
• Internal scripts that run once
• Test code (different quality criteria)
• When the user says "just get it working"

The Checklist

Imagine this code serves 1 million users. Check:

1. Observability

• Structured logging at key decision points (not just errors)
• Tracing/correlation ID propagated through the request
• Metrics for key operations (latency, success/failure counts)
• Alerts defined for anomalies

2. Error Handling at System Boundaries

• External API calls have timeouts
• External API calls have retries with backoff
• File I/O handles "file not found" and "permission denied"
• Network errors are handled (connection refused, timeout, DNS failure)
• Database errors are handled (connection lost, constraint violation)

3. Input Validation

• All external input validated before processing
• Size limits on string/array inputs
• SQL injection prevention (parameterized queries)
• XSS prevention (output encoding)
• Authentication checked before authorization

4. Graceful Degradation

• Circuit breakers for external dependencies
• Fallback behavior when dependencies are unavailable
• Graceful shutdown (drain connections, finish in-flight)
• Health check endpoint

5. Resource Management

• Connections closed/returned to pool
• Goroutines/threads have lifecycle management
• Memory bounded (no unbounded growth)
• File handles closed

Steps

1. Read the implementation
2. Run through the checklist — not every item applies to every feature
3. Flag gaps — only for items that DO apply
4. Recommend fixes — specific, not generic

Output Format

Production Readiness: [Feature Name]

Overall: READY / NEEDS_WORK / NOT_READY

Category	Status	Gaps
Observability	✓/◐/✗	[count]
Error Handling	✓/◐/✗	[count]
Input Validation	✓/◐/✗	[count]
Graceful Degradation	✓/◐/✗	[count]
Resource Management	✓/◐/✗	[count]

Critical Gaps

1. [Gap with specific file:line and fix suggestion]

Note

This is NOT about over-engineering. It's about not under-engineering the critical paths. A simple feature should have simple production hardening — logging, error handling, and input validation. Not every feature needs circuit breakers.