deployment-patterns

SKILL.md

Deployment Patterns

Production deployment workflows and CI/CD best practices.

When to Activate

Setting up CI/CD pipelines

Dockerizing an application

Planning deployment strategy (blue-green, canary, rolling)

Implementing health checks and readiness probes

Preparing for a production release

Configuring environment-specific settings

Deployment Strategies

Rolling Deployment (Default)

Replace instances gradually — old and new versions run simultaneously during rollout.
Instance 1: v1 → v2  (update first)
Instance 2: v1        (still running v1)
Instance 3: v1        (still running v1)

Instance 1: v2
Instance 2: v1 → v2  (update second)
Instance 3: v1

Instance 1: v2
Instance 2: v2
Instance 3: v1 → v2  (update last)

Pros: Zero downtime, gradual rollout
Cons: Two versions run simultaneously — requires backward-compatible changes
Use when: Standard deployments, backward-compatible changes

Blue-Green Deployment

Run two identical environments. Switch traffic atomically.

Blue  (v1) ← traffic
Green (v2)   idle, running new version

# After verification:
Blue  (v1)   idle (becomes standby)
Green (v2) ← traffic

Pros: Instant rollback (switch back to blue), clean cutover
Cons: Requires 2x infrastructure during deployment
Use when: Critical services, zero-tolerance for issues

Canary Deployment

Route a small percentage of traffic to the new version first.

v1: 95% of traffic
v2:  5% of traffic  (canary)

# If metrics look good:
v1: 50% of traffic
v2: 50% of traffic

# Final:
v2: 100% of traffic

Pros: Catches issues with real traffic before full rollout
Cons: Requires traffic splitting infrastructure, monitoring
Use when: High-traffic services, risky changes, feature flags

Docker

Multi-Stage Dockerfile (Node.js)

# Stage 1: Install dependencies
FROM node:22-alpine AS deps
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN npm ci --production=false

# Stage 2: Build
FROM node:22-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .
RUN npm run build
RUN npm prune --production

# Stage 3: Production image
FROM node:22-alpine AS runner
WORKDIR /app

RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S appgroup && adduser -S appuser -u 1001
USER appuser

COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /app/package.json ./

ENV NODE_ENV=production
EXPOSE 3000

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
  CMD wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1

CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]

Multi-Stage Dockerfile (Go)

FROM golang:1.22-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY go.mod go.sum ./
RUN go mod download
COPY . .
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o /server ./cmd/server

FROM alpine:3.19 AS runner
RUN apk --no-cache add ca-certificates
RUN adduser -D -u 1001 appuser
USER appuser

COPY --from=builder /server /server

EXPOSE 8080
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s CMD wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/health || exit 1
CMD ["/server"]

Multi-Stage Dockerfile (Python/Django)

FROM python:3.12-slim AS builder
WORKDIR /app
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir uv
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN uv pip install --system --no-cache -r requirements.txt

FROM python:3.12-slim AS runner
WORKDIR /app

RUN useradd -r -u 1001 appuser
USER appuser

COPY --from=builder /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages
COPY --from=builder /usr/local/bin /usr/local/bin
COPY . .

ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
EXPOSE 8000

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s CMD python -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health/')" || exit 1
CMD ["gunicorn", "config.wsgi:application", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:8000", "--workers", "4"]

Docker Best Practices

# GOOD practices
- Use specific version tags (node:22-alpine, not node:latest)
- Multi-stage builds to minimize image size
- Run as non-root user
- Copy dependency files first (layer caching)
- Use .dockerignore to exclude node_modules, .git, tests
- Add HEALTHCHECK instruction
- Set resource limits in docker-compose or k8s

# BAD practices
- Running as root
- Using :latest tags
- Copying entire repo in one COPY layer
- Installing dev dependencies in production image
- Storing secrets in image (use env vars or secrets manager)

CI/CD Pipeline

GitHub Actions (Standard Pipeline)

name: CI/CD

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
          cache: npm
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint
      - run: npm run typecheck
      - run: npm test -- --coverage
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        if: always()
        with:
          name: coverage
          path: coverage/

  build:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
      - uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          push: true
          tags: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:${{ github.sha }}
          cache-from: type=gha
          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max

  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    environment: production
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to production
        run: |
          # Platform-specific deployment command
          # Railway: railway up
          # Vercel: vercel --prod
          # K8s: kubectl set image deployment/app app=ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:${{ github.sha }}
          echo "Deploying ${{ github.sha }}"

Pipeline Stages

PR opened:
  lint → typecheck → unit tests → integration tests → preview deploy

Merged to main:
  lint → typecheck → unit tests → integration tests → build image → deploy staging → smoke tests → deploy production

Health Checks

Health Check Endpoint

// Simple health check
app.get("/health", (req, res) => {
  res.status(200).json({ status: "ok" });
});

// Detailed health check (for internal monitoring)
app.get("/health/detailed", async (req, res) => {
  const checks = {
    database: await checkDatabase(),
    redis: await checkRedis(),
    externalApi: await checkExternalApi(),
  };

  const allHealthy = Object.values(checks).every(c => c.status === "ok");

  res.status(allHealthy ? 200 : 503).json({
    status: allHealthy ? "ok" : "degraded",
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
    version: process.env.APP_VERSION || "unknown",
    uptime: process.uptime(),
    checks,
  });
});

async function checkDatabase(): Promise<HealthCheck> {
  try {
    await db.query("SELECT 1");
    return { status: "ok", latency_ms: 2 };
  } catch (err) {
    return { status: "error", message: "Database unreachable" };
  }
}

Kubernetes Probes

livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /health
    port: 3000
  initialDelaySeconds: 10
  periodSeconds: 30
  failureThreshold: 3

readinessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /health
    port: 3000
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 10
  failureThreshold: 2

startupProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /health
    port: 3000
  initialDelaySeconds: 0
  periodSeconds: 5
  failureThreshold: 30    # 30 * 5s = 150s max startup time

Environment Configuration

Twelve-Factor App Pattern

# All config via environment variables — never in code
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host:5432/db
REDIS_URL=redis://host:6379/0
API_KEY=${API_KEY}           # injected by secrets manager
LOG_LEVEL=info
PORT=3000

# Environment-specific behavior
NODE_ENV=production          # or staging, development
APP_ENV=production           # explicit app environment

Configuration Validation

import { z } from "zod";

const envSchema = z.object({
  NODE_ENV: z.enum(["development", "staging", "production"]),
  PORT: z.coerce.number().default(3000),
  DATABASE_URL: z.string().url(),
  REDIS_URL: z.string().url(),
  JWT_SECRET: z.string().min(32),
  LOG_LEVEL: z.enum(["debug", "info", "warn", "error"]).default("info"),
});

// Validate at startup — fail fast if config is wrong
export const env = envSchema.parse(process.env);

Rollback Strategy

Instant Rollback

# Docker/Kubernetes: point to previous image
kubectl rollout undo deployment/app

# Vercel: promote previous deployment
vercel rollback

# Railway: redeploy previous commit
railway up --commit <previous-sha>

# Database: rollback migration (if reversible)
npx prisma migrate resolve --rolled-back <migration-name>

Rollback Checklist

 Previous image/artifact is available and tagged

 Database migrations are backward-compatible (no destructive changes)

 Feature flags can disable new features without deploy

 Monitoring alerts configured for error rate spikes

 Rollback tested in staging before production release

Production Readiness Checklist

Before any production deployment:

Application

 All tests pass (unit, integration, E2E)

 No hardcoded secrets in code or config files

 Error handling covers all edge cases

 Logging is structured (JSON) and does not contain PII

 Health check endpoint returns meaningful status

Infrastructure

 Docker image builds reproducibly (pinned versions)

 Environment variables documented and validated at startup

 Resource limits set (CPU, memory)

 Horizontal scaling configured (min/max instances)

 SSL/TLS enabled on all endpoints

Monitoring

 Application metrics exported (request rate, latency, errors)

 Alerts configured for error rate > threshold

 Log aggregation set up (structured logs, searchable)

 Uptime monitoring on health endpoint

Security

 Dependencies scanned for CVEs

 CORS configured for allowed origins only

 Rate limiting enabled on public endpoints

 Authentication and authorization verified

 Security headers set (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options)

Operations

 Rollback plan documented and tested

 Database migration tested against production-sized data

 Runbook for common failure scenarios

 On-call rotation and escalation path defined