wakqasahmed Release Gate
Use this before staging or production release.
Workflow
- Confirm the reviewed commit or artifact being released.
- Confirm environment and deployment mechanism.
- Run the smallest deployment validation available.
- Smoke-test the critical route or workflow.
- Record rollback path.
- Create a HITL issue if deployment needs missing human-held access.
Scope & Exemption Rules
Apply this gate selectively based on risk level to prevent release gridlock:
- Exempt (Skip this gate): Low-risk changes per
AI_ENGINEERING_WORKFLOW.md(documentation-only edits, comments, minor styling/CSS tweaks, test-only additions, and narrow bug fixes with no business-rule change, data schema, auth, or infrastructure changes) skip the full staging/rollback release gate. - Mandatory (Do not skip): Medium and High-risk changes (user-facing features, business logic changes, migrations, authentication/permissions, deployment pipelines, and third-party integrations) must satisfy all checks below before release.
Required For Medium/High Risk
- CI status
- Review status
- Target environment
- Smoke test command
- Rollback command or previous artifact
- Health check signal
Guardrails
- Prefer deploying reviewed artifacts over rebuilding unreviewed source.
- Do not deploy production from unreviewed PRs.
- Do not silently work around missing secrets, DNS, or account permissions.
- Test database safety (disposable/dedicated storage, staging backup timing) follows
system-level/core.md(Test Database Safety) — this gate does not relax it.