Deployment Procedures

# Deployment Procedures

> Deployment principles and decision-making for safe production releases.

> **Learn to THINK, not memorize scripts.**

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⚠️ How to Use This Skill

This skill teaches **deployment principles**, not bash scripts to copy.

- Every deployment is unique

- Understand the WHY behind each step

- Adapt procedures to your platform

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1. Platform Selection

Decision Tree

What are you deploying?
│
├── Static site / JAMstack
│   └── Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages
│
├── Simple web app
│   ├── Managed → Railway, Render, Fly.io
│   └── Control → VPS + PM2/Docker
│
├── Microservices
│   └── Container orchestration
│
└── Serverless
    └── Edge functions, Lambda

Each Platform Has Different Procedures

| Platform | Deployment Method |

|----------|------------------|

| **Vercel/Netlify** | Git push, auto-deploy |

| **Railway/Render** | Git push or CLI |

| **VPS + PM2** | SSH + manual steps |

| **Docker** | Image push + orchestration |

| **Kubernetes** | kubectl apply |

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2. Pre-Deployment Principles

The 4 Verification Categories

| Category | What to Check |

|----------|--------------|

| **Code Quality** | Tests passing, linting clean, reviewed |

| **Build** | Production build works, no warnings |

| **Environment** | Env vars set, secrets current |

| **Safety** | Backup done, rollback plan ready |

Pre-Deployment Checklist

- [ ] All tests passing

- [ ] Code reviewed and approved

- [ ] Production build successful

- [ ] Environment variables verified

- [ ] Database migrations ready (if any)

- [ ] Rollback plan documented

- [ ] Team notified

- [ ] Monitoring ready

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3. Deployment Workflow Principles

The 5-Phase Process

1. PREPARE
   └── Verify code, build, env vars

2. BACKUP
   └── Save current state before changing

3. DEPLOY
   └── Execute with monitoring open

4. VERIFY
   └── Health check, logs, key flows

5. CONFIRM or ROLLBACK
   └── All good? Confirm. Issues? Rollback.

Phase Principles

| Phase | Principle |

|-------|-----------|

| **Prepare** | Never deploy untested code |

| **Backup** | Can't rollback without backup |

| **Deploy** | Watch it happen, don't walk away |

| **Verify** | Trust but verify |

| **Confirm** | Have rollback trigger ready |

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4. Post-Deployment Verification

What to Verify

| Check | Why |

|-------|-----|

| **Health endpoint** | Service is running |

| **Error logs** | No new errors |

| **Key user flows** | Critical features work |

| **Performance** | Response times acceptable |

Verification Window

- **First 5 minutes**: Active monitoring

- **15 minutes**: Confirm stable

- **1 hour**: Final verification

- **Next day**: Review metrics

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5. Rollback Principles

When to Rollback

| Symptom | Action |

|---------|--------|

| Service down | Rollback immediately |

| Critical errors | Rollback |

| Performance >50% degraded | Consider rollback |

| Minor issues | Fix forward if quick |

Rollback Strategy by Platform

| Platform | Rollback Method |

|----------|----------------|

| **Vercel/Netlify** | Redeploy previous commit |

| **Railway/Render** | Rollback in dashboard |

| **VPS + PM2** | Restore backup, restart |

| **Docker** | Previous image tag |

| **K8s** | kubectl rollout undo |

Rollback Principles

1. **Speed over perfection**: Rollback first, debug later

2. **Don't compound errors**: One rollback, not multiple changes

3. **Communicate**: Tell team what happened

4. **Post-mortem**: Understand why after stable

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6. Zero-Downtime Deployment

Strategies

| Strategy | How It Works |

|----------|--------------|

| **Rolling** | Replace instances one by one |

| **Blue-Green** | Switch traffic between environments |

| **Canary** | Gradual traffic shift |

Selection Principles

| Scenario | Strategy |

|----------|----------|

| Standard release | Rolling |

| High-risk change | Blue-green (easy rollback) |

| Need validation | Canary (test with real traffic) |

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7. Emergency P