planifest Deployment Strategy Canary
Overview
Use this skill to release changes gradually while measuring real-user impact before broad rollout.
Scope Boundaries
- Use this skill when the task matches the trigger condition described in
description. - Do not use this skill when the primary task falls outside this skill's domain.
Shared References
- Promotion and stop decision rules:
references/canary-promotion-rules.md
Templates And Assets
- Rollout plan template:
assets/canary-rollout-plan-template.md
- Guardrail matrix template:
assets/canary-guardrail-matrix-template.csv
Inputs To Gather
- Critical SLOs and business guardrail metrics.
- Traffic segmentation options (region, tenant, cohort).
- Maximum acceptable degradation and rollback thresholds.
- Release window and incident response readiness.
Deliverables
- Canary progression plan (percentage/time/gates).
- Guardrail matrix and promotion rules.
- Automatic stop/rollback policy.
- Post-promotion verification and observation window plan.
Quick Progression Example
- Steps: 1% -> 5% -> 20% -> 50% -> 100%.
- Hold at each step for fixed minimum time and metric stability checks.
- Auto-rollback if error rate rises > threshold or SLO drops below floor.
Quality Standard
- Promotion gates are objective and pre-registered.
- Guardrails include technical and business impact signals.
- Rollback automation/authority is clearly defined.
- Segment choice avoids exposing highest-risk cohorts first.
Workflow
- Define canary audience and progression steps in
assets/canary-rollout-plan-template.md. - Set promotion and rollback criteria for each step using
assets/canary-guardrail-matrix-template.csv. - Deploy canary and monitor guardrails in real time.
- Promote only when criteria pass under
references/canary-promotion-rules.md; otherwise stop/rollback. - Complete rollout and run post-release verification.
Failure Conditions
- Stop when promotion criteria are ambiguous or non-measurable.
- Stop when telemetry cannot detect regressions quickly.
- Escalate when rollback path is manual-only for high-criticality services.