> workflow / production
Production
Operate the live release with go/no-go discipline, progressive exposure, verified rollback, and customer communication readiness.
What should I do next?
Complete the steps and evidence below, clear the human gates, then continue to Continuous Improvement.
When to use
- Stage validation and monitoring are ready
- You are executing a production deploy or GA ramp
- Hotfix path may be needed under incident pressure
- Compliance needs a release evidence bundle
Step-by-step
- Run go/no-go against checklist: tests, security, perf, monitoring, rollback drill.
- Deploy via the release pattern (canary/flags); watch abort metrics.
- Keep hotfix-pattern ready for containment without large rewrites.
- Publish release notes and customer/internal comms as planned.
- Capture evidence bundle (what shipped, gates, approvers).
- If abort criteria hit, roll back immediately — do not "push through".
- Hand off to continuous-improvement with open actions from the release.
Decisions to make
- Go / no-go / abort
- Ramp percentage and hold duration
- Hotfix vs rollback vs forward fix
- Customer notification timing and channel
Evidence to collect
- Deployed release with artifact digest
- Go/no-go record and approvers
- Release notes and comms sent
- Evidence bundle for compliance/audit
Role-specific next actions
- PM: Own customer comms and go/no-go business call.
- Architect: Advise abort when boundary or data risk appears mid-ramp.
- Engineer: Execute deploy steps; stay on hotline through ramp.
- DevOps: Drive pipeline, canary, and rollback mechanics.
Inputs
- Release candidate and pipeline
- Runbooks and abort metrics
- Comms plan and on-call coverage
Outputs
- Production release
- Release notes
- Evidence bundle and open follow-ups
Required prompts
- Release
Go/no-go structure, notes, and rollback criteria.
- Documentation
Finalize operator and customer-facing docs for what shipped.
- Incident
If the release degrades — structured response.
Required skills
- DevOps
Production delivery and rollback discipline.
- Documentation
Accurate release and operator docs.
Required MCP servers
- GitHub MCP
Release tags, deploy PRs, and status checks.
- Kubernetes MCP
Live cluster inspection during ramp when applicable.
- Sentry MCP
Watch error burn during canary.
- Slack MCP
Optional incident/release channel coordination.
Tooling & handbook
- Hotfix pattern
Smallest reversible containment under pressure.
- Release pattern workflow
Progressive exposure with abort.
- deployment hook
Final pre-prod checks.
- post-deployment hook
Verify health after deploy.
Recommended agents & patterns
- Release pattern
Primary release pattern.
- Hotfix pattern
Emergency containment pattern.
- Release agent
Release checklist assist.
Human approval gates
- Go/no-go with rollback verified before ramp
- Abort authority named and exercised if metrics trip
Automation opportunities
- Canary deploy automation with metric abort
- Feature flags for progressive exposure
- Evidence bundle generation from CI + approval records
Enterprise best practices
- Evidence retained for compliance audits
- Customer comms templates approved by legal/support where required
- Change records linked to SoA when applicable
Common mistakes
- Big-bang deploys without canary or flags
- Skipping rollback drill
- Pushing through abort criteria to "make the date"