Groq Production Checklist
Overview
Complete pre-launch checklist for deploying Groq-powered applications to production. Covers API key security, model selection, rate limit planning, fallback strategies, and monitoring setup. Work top-to-bottom: each section is a gate that must be green before the go-live verification runs.
Deep code (fallback function, health-check endpoint, go-live script) lives in references/ so this file stays scannable — drill in when you reach that step.
Prerequisites
- Staging environment tested with Groq API
- Groq Developer or Enterprise plan (free tier is not suitable for production)
- Production API key created in console.groq.com
- Monitoring and alerting infrastructure ready
Instructions
Read the target app's Groq integration and config, then walk each gate below. Tick every box; an unchecked item is a launch blocker.
1. API Key & Auth
2. Model Selection
3. Rate Limit Planning
4. Error Handling & Fallback
5. Health Check
6. Monitoring Setup
7. Spending Controls
8. Documentation
9. Go-Live Verification
Run the pre-flight curl script against production — status, key, health endpoint, and rate-limit headroom must all pass. Full script and pass/fail table in references/go-live.md.
Output
Working through this skill produces a go / no-go launch decision:
- A completed checklist where every box is ticked or explicitly waived with a reason.
- A green go-live verification run (all four pre-flight checks passing).
- The alert matrix (below) wired into your monitoring stack.
Any unchecked security or auth item (Sections 1, 2) is a hard blocker; unchecked monitoring or spending items (Sections 6, 7) are P3 blockers that may launch with a tracked follow-up.
Error Handling
Wire these alerts before go-live so production failures page the right severity:
| Alert | Condition | Severity |
|---|
| API errors spike | 5xx rate > 5/min | P1 |
| Latency degraded | p95 > 1000ms | P2 |
| Rate limited | 429 count > 5/min | P2 |
| Auth failure | Any 401 error | P1 |
| Spending near cap | >90% of monthly budget | P3 |
Examples
Minimal fallback skeleton — try the primary model, fall back to the fast model on 429/5xx:
try {
return await groq.chat.completions.create({ model: "llama-3.3-70b-versatile", messages, timeout: 15_000 });
} catch (err: any) {
if (err.status === 429 || err.status >= 500) {
return await groq.chat.completions.create({ model: "llama-3.1-8b-instant", messages, timeout: 10_000 });
}
throw err;
}
Resources
Next Steps
Once launched, keep the integration current: schedule model-deprecation reviews against the Groq deprecations page, and for version upgrades follow the groq-upgrade-migration skill. If an incident fires an alert above, escalate through the groq-incident-runbook.
