ship-pipeline

name	ship-pipeline
description	Use before any release to kernel.chat or npm publish of kbot. Six gates, each must pass. Skipping a gate is how regressions ship.
version	1.0.0
author	kbot
license	MIT
metadata	{"kbot":{"tags":["deploy","release","ship","quality","gates"],"related_skills":["test-driven-development","systematic-debugging"]}}

Ship Pipeline

Six gates, in order. Each must be green before the next runs. The /ship slash command executes them; you can run them manually when investigating.

Iron Law

NO GATE SKIPS. NO REORDERING. NO "I'LL RUN IT AFTER DEPLOY."

A gate that's inconvenient is a gate that's catching something. Skipping is how regressions ship to 4,800 weekly-download users.

The Gates

1. Security (guardian)

• Secret scan — no API keys, tokens, or .env content in the diff.
• Dependency audit — npm audit clean or documented exceptions.
• OWASP checks on anything touching user input or external calls.
• SSRF guards present on new fetch calls.

2. QA (qa)

• npx tsc --noEmit — strict typecheck.
• npm run test — full test suite green.
• Any UI change: dev server + browser verification for the golden path AND one edge case.
• No console.log, no commented-out code in the diff.

3. Design (aesthete / designer)

• Design tokens used, not raw values. --rubin-primary, not #6B5B95.
• Spacing uses the scale (--space-*), not magic numbers.
• A11y: keyboard nav works, contrast meets AA, screen reader labels present.
• Motion: reduced-motion media query respected.

4. Performance (performance)

• Bundle budget: main JS < 300KB gzip, CSS < 150KB gzip.
• No new dependencies > 50KB gzip without discussion.
• Lazy-load still works for route-level components.
• Service worker cache invalidation tested.

5. DevOps (devops)

• Edge functions deploy cleanly to Supabase.
• Migrations are reversible.
• GitHub Pages build succeeds locally.
• Version bumped correctly in package.json.

6. Product (product)

• Feature actually does what the issue says it does.
• Mobile-first: tested at 375px width.
• Empty state, loading state, error state all present.
• The change is something a user would notice — not invisible plumbing shipped as a feature.

Running It

• /ship in Claude Code runs all six in sequence.
• Manually: /security-audit → /qa → /design-check → /perf → /devops → /team (product review).
• For kbot itself: cd packages/kbot && npm run typecheck && npm run test && npm run build && npm publish --dry-run.

Anti-Pattern

Running the gates in parallel "to save time." They're sequential because later gates depend on earlier ones passing (no point running design checks on a build that won't compile). The serial wait is the feature.

Rollback Plan

Every deploy must have one. For kernel.chat: previous gh-pages tag. For kbot: npm deprecate @kernel.chat/kbot@<version> + publish a patched version. Know the rollback before shipping, not after breaking.