Deploy Gate

Deploy Gate v0.1

A thin checklist-runner that verifies deployment readiness before shipping. This skill checks preconditions — it does NOT execute deployments, manage rollbacks, or monitor rollouts.

When This Activates

• Part of the SHIP phase composition chain
• Runs after verification-before-completion confirms code correctness
• Runs before openspec-ship generates documentation
• Can also be triggered explicitly: "check deployment readiness", "run deploy gate"

Checklist

Run each check. Report pass/fail with evidence. Do not block on warnings — report them and let the human decide.

Required Checks (must pass)

1. CI Status (fail-closed: absent ≠ green)

   _concl="$(gh pr checks --fail-fast >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo PASS \
             || gh run list --limit 1 --json conclusion -q '.[0].conclusion')"
   if [ -z "$_concl" ]; then
     echo "GATE FAIL: no CI checks reported — absent ≠ green. Treating as FAIL."
   else
     echo "CI conclusion: $_concl"
   fi
   

   Gate: distinguish three states — green ($_concl = PASS/success), red (any failure conclusion), absent-or-broken (empty $_concl, or a run that concluded with zero completed steps). Absent-or-broken is a FAIL, never a pass. Do not read an empty statusCheckRollup as "nothing blocking → ship". If gh pr checks itself reports failing checks, that is red regardless of what gh run list returns — do not let a stale prior run's success conclusion mask currently-red PR checks.

   Local verification of record: when hosted CI is absent, you MAY accept a fresh ~/.claude/.skill-project-verified-<token> evidence file as verification performed on substrate local ONLY when its failed list is empty, its could_not_verify list is empty, gate_gaming_status is exactly clean, AND coverage_adequacy_status is not suspect. Any other value for gate_gaming_status — suspect (a possibly-gamed gate), unverified (the gate-gaming check could not run), or the field absent — MUST NOT be accepted: require the positive clean assertion, because absence is not proof (just as a non-empty could_not_verify, a gate that could not run, is not).

   coverage_adequacy_status has a deliberately different acceptance rule than gate_gaming_status, in parity with project-verification's own tri-state contract for the field. A suspect value (new code shipping below the changed-line coverage floor) BLOCKS acceptance the same way gate_gaming_status: suspect does — both are positive evidence of a problem, not mere absence of proof. But unverified or an absent coverage_adequacy_status does NOT block acceptance, unlike an absent gate_gaming_status. This asymmetry is intentional: project-verification's adequacy check is itself fail-open by contract — unverified (no coverage tooling present, or an unparseable artifact) MUST NOT block there — so treating an absent or unverified field as a rejection here would silently re-impose a block the upstream check explicitly disclaims, penalizing repos that simply lack coverage tooling rather than repos with a demonstrated coverage gap.

   Since absence-of-failure is not proof-of-pass, when rejecting evidence surface the specific reason (which gates could not be verified, that gate-gaming was detected/unverified in the diff, or that coverage_adequacy_status was suspect) rather than only reporting that hosted CI was absent. Still surface that hosted CI was absent rather than claiming hosted-CI green. This evidence is advisory provenance, not a non-bypassable gate.

2. No WIP Commits

   git log --oneline origin/main..HEAD | grep -iE '(wip|fixup|squash|todo|hack|tmp)'
   

   Gate: No WIP-pattern commits on the branch.

3. Version/Changelog Updated (if applicable) Check if CHANGELOG.md, package.json, or version file was modified in this branch. Gate: Soft — warn if no version change detected.

4. Design Intent Exists (if DESIGN phase was executed) Check session state for design_path. If set, verify the file exists at docs/plans/. Gate: Soft — warn if design_path is set but file is missing.

Advisory Checks (warn only)

5. Branch Protection

   gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/branches/main/protection 2>/dev/null | jq '.required_status_checks'
   

   Report whether branch protection is configured.

6. Dependent Services Notified Prompt: "Does this change affect any downstream services or consumers? If yes, have they been notified?" This is a human checkpoint, not an automated check.

7. Feature Flags Prompt: "Is this change behind a feature flag? If yes, confirm the flag default is OFF."

Project-Local Override

If .deploy-checklist.yml exists in the repo root, read it and use its checklist instead of the defaults above. Format:

required:
  - name: CI green
    command: gh pr checks --fail-fast
    gate: exit_code_zero
  - name: No WIP commits
    command: git log --oneline origin/main..HEAD | grep -iE '(wip|fixup|squash)'
    gate: exit_code_nonzero  # grep returns 1 when no match = good
advisory:
  - name: Migration reviewed
    prompt: "Have database migrations been reviewed by the DBA?"

Output

Report as a structured checklist:

## Deploy Gate Results

| # | Check | Status | Evidence |
|---|-------|--------|----------|
| 1 | CI Status | PASS | Last run: success (run 12345) |
| 2 | No WIP commits | PASS | 0 WIP-pattern commits found |
| 3 | Version updated | WARN | No version change detected |
| 4 | Design intent | PASS | docs/plans/2026-04-15-feature-design.md exists |
| 5 | Branch protection | INFO | Required status checks: [ci/build] |
| 6 | Dependent services | HUMAN | User confirmed: no downstream impact |
| 7 | Feature flags | SKIP | No feature flags in this change |

**Result: PASS** (2 warnings, 0 failures)

Staged Rollout & Rollback Plan (advisory)

This gate checks readiness; it does not execute the rollout. But a "go" is only meaningful against a pre-agreed rollout and rollback plan. Before promoting, confirm the human has these defined (surface them; do not enforce):

Progressive canary stages. Ship to a small slice first, bake, then widen. A typical ladder — adjust to traffic and risk:

Rollback triggers (define BEFORE rollout, measured against the pre-deploy baseline — not against zero):

• Error rate — e.g. roll back if 5xx / error-event rate exceeds baseline by a pre-set margin (a relative bump, e.g. +0.5pp absolute or +50% relative, whichever the team picks) sustained over the bake window.
• Latency — e.g. roll back if p95 (and/or p99) exceeds the baseline by a pre-set margin sustained over the bake window. Use the same percentile the SLO is written in.
• Saturation — CPU/memory/connection-pool/queue-depth nearing limits at the current canary share (it will scale ~linearly as traffic widens).

Rollback is the default, not the exception. If a trigger trips, revert first and diagnose after — do not "wait and see" while widening. Prefer a fast revert path (redeploy previous image / flip the flag) over a forward-fix under load.

If any required check FAILS, report the failure clearly and stop. Do not proceed to openspec-ship.

Verification

Before reporting GO, confirm -- with evidence, not assumption:

• Every Required Check ran and its result was observed this session (CI status fetched, not presumed green).
• No required check sits in an unknown or skipped state being treated as a pass.
• Version and design-artifact checks reference the actual files, not memory.
• On any required-check FAIL, the verdict is STOP -- openspec-ship is not invoked.