deployment-learn

name	deployment-learn
source	botcore
description	Guides containerization, CI/CD pipeline setup, and production deployment. Covers Dockerfile best practices, GitHub Actions workflows, secret management, health checks, resource limits, environment parity, and rollback strategies. Use when building Docker images, configuring pipelines, preparing deployments, or reviewing infrastructure code. Triggers: Docker, CI/CD, deployment, Kubernetes, pipeline, container, GitHub Actions, infrastructure, deploy.
version	1.0.0
triggers	["infrastructure","Docker","CI/CD","deployment","Kubernetes","pipeline","container","GitHub Actions","deploy","Dockerfile","rollback","health check"]
portable	true

Deploying Infrastructure

Best practices for containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and production deployment.

Capabilities

1. Author and review Dockerfiles using multi-stage builds, non-root users, and minimal layers
2. Configure CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions) with lint, test, build, security, and deploy stages
3. Enforce secret management practices -- never commit secrets, use secret managers
4. Implement health check endpoints (liveness and readiness probes)
5. Define resource requests and limits for containerized workloads
6. Plan rollback strategies using blue-green/canary deployments and feature flags
7. Maintain environment parity across dev, staging, and production

Core Principles

• Immutable artifacts: Build once, deploy the same image to every environment. Tag images with specific versions, never latest.
• Fail fast: Pipeline stages should catch issues early -- lint before test, test before build, build before deploy.
• Least privilege: Containers run as non-root. Secrets live in secret managers, not in code or committed env files.
• Environment parity: Keep base images, dependency versions, and database engines identical across environments. Only values change.
• Rollback readiness: Every deployment must be reversible in under 5 minutes. Database migrations must be backward-compatible.

Workflow

Dockerfile

# Multi-stage build
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .
USER node
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Key rules:

• Use multi-stage builds to reduce final image size
• Pin base image tags to specific versions
• Run as non-root user (USER node)
• Configure .dockerignore to exclude unnecessary files
• Combine RUN commands to minimize layers
• Define a HEALTHCHECK instruction

CI/CD Pipeline

# GitHub Actions
name: deployment-learn
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run build

Pipeline stages and fail-fast behavior:

Stage	Purpose	Fail Fast
Lint	Code style	Yes
Test	Unit/integration	Yes
Build	Compile/bundle	Yes
Security	Dependency scan	Warn
Deploy	Ship to env	Manual gate

Secret Management

Never store secrets in source code or committed files. Reference them from a secret manager.

# Wrong: hardcoded secret
DATABASE_URL: postgres://user:password@host/db

# Correct: referenced from secret store
DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}

Tool	Use Case
GitHub Secrets	CI/CD pipelines
AWS Secrets Manager	Production apps
HashiCorp Vault	Enterprise, multi-cloud
Doppler	Cross-platform sync

Health Checks

Implement both liveness and readiness endpoints:

// Liveness -- is the process running?
app.get('/health/live', (req, res) => res.send('OK'));

// Readiness -- can it accept traffic?
app.get('/health/ready', async (req, res) => {
  const dbOk = await checkDatabase();
  const cacheOk = await checkCache();
  if (dbOk && cacheOk) return res.send('OK');
  res.status(503).send('Not Ready');
});

Resource Limits

# Kubernetes resource specification
resources:
  requests:
    memory: "128Mi"
    cpu: "100m"
  limits:
    memory: "256Mi"
    cpu: "500m"

Environment Parity

Aspect	Requirement
Base images	Same versions across environments
Environment vars	Same names, different values
Dependencies	Exact versions via lockfiles
Database	Same engine version

Quick Reference -- Anti-Patterns

Avoid	Instead
latest tags	Specific version tags
Root user in containers	Non-root user
Secrets in committed env files	Secret manager
Manual deployments	Automated pipelines
No health checks	Liveness + readiness probes

Checklist

• Dockerfile uses multi-stage builds and non-root user
• .dockerignore is configured
• Base image tags are pinned (no latest)
• Health check instruction defined in Dockerfile
• CI pipeline runs lint, test, build stages
• Secrets are stored in a secret manager, not in code or git
• Health check endpoints (/health/live, /health/ready) implemented
• Resource requests and limits defined for containers
• Rollback mechanism tested and completes in under 5 minutes
• Database migrations are backward-compatible
• Environment parity verified across dev, staging, production
• Feature flags used for risky changes
• Blue-green or canary deployment strategy documented

When to Escalate

• Multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud networking configurations requiring specialized platform knowledge
• Kubernetes cluster administration (node scaling, RBAC policies, custom operators)
• Compliance-driven infrastructure requirements (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS audit controls)
• Production incident response involving infrastructure failures outside application scope
• Cost optimization across cloud providers requiring billing and resource analysis