Deployment Checklist Generator

Ensure safe, reliable deployments with comprehensive checklists.

Pre-Deployment Checklist

Pre-Deployment Checklist

Code Quality

• All CI checks passing
• Code review approved (2+ reviewers)
• No known critical bugs
• Security scan passed
• Performance tests passed

Dependencies

• All dependencies up to date
• No high/critical vulnerabilities
• Bundle size within budget
• Third-party services operational

Database

• Migrations tested in staging
• Backup completed
• Rollback plan documented
• Data migration scripts reviewed

Infrastructure

• Servers have capacity
• CDN cache invalidation plan
• Load balancer configured
• SSL certificates valid

Documentation

• Changelog updated
• API docs updated (if changed)
• Deployment notes prepared
• Rollback instructions ready

Communication

• Stakeholders notified
• Maintenance window scheduled (if needed)
• Support team briefed
• Status page prepared

Deployment Window

• Off-peak hours selected
• Team available for monitoring
• Emergency contacts confirmed

Deployment Workflow with Checks

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

name: Deploy to Production

on: workflow_dispatch:

jobs: pre-deploy-checks: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Check branch
    run: |
      if [ "${{ github.ref }}" != "refs/heads/main" ]; then
        echo "❌ Can only deploy from main branch"
        exit 1
      fi

  - name: Verify CI passed
    uses: actions/github-script@v7
    with:
      script: |
        const checks = await github.rest.checks.listForRef({
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          ref: context.sha,
        });

        const failed = checks.data.check_runs.filter(
          check => check.conclusion === 'failure'
        );

        if (failed.length > 0) {
          throw new Error(`CI checks failed: ${failed.map(c => c.name).join(', ')}`);
        }

  - name: Check deployment window
    run: |
      HOUR=$(date +%H)
      if [ $HOUR -ge 9 ] && [ $HOUR -le 17 ]; then
        echo "⚠️ Deploying during business hours"
      else
        echo "✅ Deploying outside business hours"
      fi

  - name: Verify staging deployment
    run: |
      if ! curl -f https://staging.myapp.com/health; then
        echo "❌ Staging is not healthy"
        exit 1
      fi

deploy: needs: pre-deploy-checks runs-on: ubuntu-latest environment: name: production url: https://myapp.com steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Backup database
    run: ./scripts/backup-db.sh

  - name: Deploy
    run: ./scripts/deploy.sh production

  - name: Run smoke tests
    run: ./scripts/smoke-tests.sh production

  - name: Update status page
    run: |
      curl -X POST https://statuspage.io/api/v1/incidents \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.STATUSPAGE_TOKEN }}" \
        -d '{"name":"Deployment Complete","status":"resolved"}'

  - name: Create deployment record
    uses: actions/github-script@v7
    with:
      script: |
        github.rest.repos.createDeployment({
          owner: context.repo.owner,
          repo: context.repo.repo,
          ref: context.sha,
          environment: 'production',
          description: 'Production deployment',
        });

Smoke Test Script

#!/bin/bash

scripts/smoke-tests.sh

ENVIRONMENT=$1 BASE_URL="https://${ENVIRONMENT}.myapp.com"

echo "🔍 Running smoke tests for $ENVIRONMENT..."

FAILED=0

Test 1: Health endpoint

echo "Test 1: Health check" if curl -f "$BASE_URL/health" | grep -q "ok"; then echo "✅ Health check passed" else echo "❌ Health check failed" FAILED=1 fi

Test 2: User authentication

echo "Test 2: User login" TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST "$BASE_URL/api/auth/login"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{"email":"test@example.com","password":"test123"}'
| jq -r '.token')

if [ -n "$TOKEN" ] && [ "$TOKEN" != "null" ]; then echo "✅ Login passed" else echo "❌ Login failed" FAILED=1 fi

Test 3: Critical API endpoints

echo "Test 3: API endpoints" ENDPOINTS=("/api/users" "/api/products" "/api/orders")

for endpoint in "${ENDPOINTS[@]}"; do STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}"
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
"$BASE_URL$endpoint")

if [ "$STATUS" == "200" ]; then echo "✅ $endpoint: $STATUS" else echo "❌ $endpoint: $STATUS" FAILED=1 fi done

Test 4: Database connectivity

echo "Test 4: Database check" if curl -f "$BASE_URL/api/health/db" | grep -q "connected"; then echo "✅ Database connected" else echo "❌ Database connection failed" FAILED=1 fi

Test 5: External services

echo "Test 5: External services" SERVICES=("stripe" "sendgrid" "aws")

for service in "${SERVICES[@]}"; do if curl -f "$BASE_URL/api/health/$service" | grep -q "ok"; then echo "✅ $service: connected" else echo "❌ $service: connection failed" FAILED=1 fi done

if [ $FAILED -eq 1 ]; then echo "❌ Smoke tests failed" exit 1 fi

echo "✅ All smoke tests passed" exit 0

Post-Deployment Verification

Post-Deployment Verification

Immediate Checks (0-5 minutes)

• Deployment completed successfully
• All smoke tests passed
• Health checks returning 200
• No 5xx errors in logs
• Application responding

Short-term Monitoring (5-30 minutes)

• Error rate <1%
• Response time p95 <500ms
• CPU usage normal (<70%)
• Memory usage stable
• Database queries performing well

Feature Verification

• Login/authentication working
• Checkout flow functional
• Search returning results
• Email notifications sending
• Payment processing working

Metrics Dashboard

• Request volume normal
• Success rate >99%
• Latency within SLA
• No spike in errors
• User engagement stable

Long-term Monitoring (1-24 hours)

• No user complaints
• Support tickets normal
• Revenue tracking normal
• All scheduled jobs running
• No memory leaks detected

Sign-off Template

• name: Request deployment approval uses: trstringer/manual-approval@v1 with: secret: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} approvers: tech-lead,ops-manager minimum-approvals: 2 issue-title: "Approve Production Deployment" issue-body: | ## Deployment Details

  **Version:** ${{ github.ref_name }}
  **Commit:** ${{ github.sha }}
  **Changes:** See [changelog](CHANGELOG.md)
  
  ## Pre-deployment Checklist
  - ✅ All CI checks passed
  - ✅ Code review completed
  - ✅ Security scan passed
  - ✅ Staging verified
  
  ## Approval Required
  This deployment requires approval from tech lead and ops manager.
  
  **Approve:** Comment "approve" or "lgtm"
  **Reject:** Comment "reject" or "block"
  

Monitoring Dashboard

Deployment Monitoring Dashboard

Key Metrics

Health

• API Health: ✅ UP
• Database: ✅ Connected
• Cache: ✅ Connected

Performance

• Requests/min: 1,234
• Error rate: 0.2%
• p50 latency: 120ms
• p95 latency: 450ms
• p99 latency: 1,200ms

Infrastructure

• CPU: 45%
• Memory: 62%
• Disk: 38%

Business Metrics

• Active users: 523
• Successful checkouts: 89/hour
• Revenue: $15,234/hour

Alerts

No active alerts

Recent Deployments

• v1.3.0: Deployed 5 minutes ago ✅
• v1.2.9: Deployed 2 days ago ✅
• v1.2.8: Rolled back 3 days ago ⚠️

Best Practices

• Automated checks: Enforce via CI/CD

• Manual review: Critical deployments need approval

• Smoke tests: Verify key functionality

• Gradual rollout: Canary or blue-green

• Monitoring: Watch metrics for 30 minutes

• Communication: Keep stakeholders informed

• Rollback ready: One-click rollback available

Output Checklist

• Pre-deployment checklist

• Deployment workflow with gates

• Smoke test script

• Post-deployment verification

• Sign-off workflow

• Monitoring dashboard

• Communication templates

• Rollback instructions