-
Deployment
Write a deploy runbook I can follow half-asleep
Document the actual pre-flight, deploy, and verification steps so shipping is boring and repeatable.
Free Prompt
Write a deploy runbook for my app that I can actually follow on a rough day. Not a wall of prose; a checklist I run top to bottom.
The runbook covers three sections:
1. Pre-flight (before merging to main): tests green, CHANGELOG updated with anything user-facing, any new env vars added to staging and production secrets, any migration reviewed for backwards-compatibility, feature flags configured, and (if applicable) support/marketing notified for anything user-visible.
2. Deploy: exact commands or button clicks, in order. Deploy to staging first, wait for /ready, run staging smoke tests (list the exact steps: sign in, run the critical happy path, check the admin dashboard, verify a webhook if relevant). Only after staging is verified, promote to production. If migrations are involved, run them before the new code deploys.
3. Post-deploy verification: run production smoke tests (same critical happy path against production, or a canary account), check error tracking for new spikes, check basic metrics (error rate, p95 latency) for five to ten minutes. Document what 'looks bad' means so I don't second-guess normal noise.
Also include:
4. A rollback pointer at the top: 'If any post-deploy check fails, execute [rollback runbook link]'. Don't bury this.
5. Contact list: who to page for infrastructure, database, and third-party issues. Even if it's just me, write it down so future-me remembers.
Don't write a novel; the whole thing should fit on one page. The deliverable is the runbook checked into the repo (or wherever I keep operational docs), one deploy run through it end to end to confirm the steps are correct and complete, and any gaps fixed based on that dry run.
What This Does / How This Helps
This turns deploying into a checklist you follow instead of a set of decisions you make. Pre-flight, deploy in order, verify, and know exactly what to do if something looks wrong. Runbooks look bureaucratic until the first tired 11pm deploy where you almost skip the migration step, or the one where staging smoke tests fail and you can't remember which command rolls back. A one-page checklist prevents the specific class of mistake that happens because a human tried to remember six steps at once. It also makes it possible for anyone besides you to ship.
Want to skip doing this by hand?
Fortivibe audits your app for all of the areas these prompts cover (and more).