playbook/antigravity-awesome-skills/skills/pre-release-review/references/checklist.md

Pre-release Review Checklist

Use this checklist to find production release risks from a PR or git diff. Report only categories with confirmed problems or plausible risks that need confirmation.

Database and data changes

• Schema or ORM model changes without corresponding migration files.
• New columns, enums, constraints, indexes, partitions, triggers, functions, or extensions that need deploy-time DDL.
• Destructive migrations, column renames, type changes, constraint tightening, or data rewrites without backward-compatible rollout or rollback notes.
• New required data without seed, backfill, admin setup, or one-time SQL.
• Index changes that may lock large tables or need concurrent/online creation.
• Query changes that depend on data shape not guaranteed in production.
• Migration files present but not referenced by the deploy system or migration runner.

Environment and configuration

• New env var, config key, feature flag, secret name, or runtime option without example/default, deployment platform update, or CI/CD secret update.
• Config key rename/removal that may break existing production variables.
• Code that reads production-only values without validation or safe failure behavior.
• Feature flags without documented default state, owner, rollout plan, or kill switch.
• Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, Railway, Vercel, GitHub Actions, or similar deploy config changes that require manual environment changes.

Security and sensitive material

• Private keys, tokens, passwords, certificates, cookies, .pem, .key, .p12, .env, service account JSON, or cloud credentials added to the diff.
• Logs, errors, analytics, webhooks, or traces that may expose PII, tokens, session IDs, or payment data.
• Debug endpoints, admin bypasses, permissive CORS, disabled auth, relaxed TLS, or temporary development flags.
• IAM, ACL, bucket policy, database role, queue permission, webhook signature, or API key scope changes without release coordination.
• Dependency or container changes with known security-sensitive behavior, native binaries, or postinstall scripts.

Cache, CDN, and derived state

• Redis key format, namespace, TTL, serialization, or value shape changes without invalidation or backward compatibility.
• Code that assumes warmed cache, precomputed data, materialized views, search indexes, or derived tables exist.
• CDN/static asset paths, cache headers, ETags, versioning, or purge requirements changed.
• Rollout can serve mixed old/new cache values during a partial deploy.
• Feature removal leaves stale cache keys that can revive old behavior.

Queues, events, and schedulers

• New topic, queue, routing key, exchange, subscription, event type, cron job, or scheduled worker.
• Producer and consumer contract changes without compatible deployment order.
• Missing DLQ, retry policy, idempotency, dedupe key, or poison-message handling.
• Worker concurrency, timeout, rate limit, or backpressure changes that may overload dependencies.
• Event payload shape changes without versioning or old-consumer compatibility.

External services and assets

• New object storage, CDN, S3, OSS, GCS, or static asset references without upload or permissions confirmation.
• Email, SMS, push, PDF, image, translation, or notification templates changed without production material update.
• Webhook URL, callback domain, redirect URI, CORS origin, OAuth app, payment provider, or third party whitelist changes.
• New cloud resource, bucket, DNS record, certificate, API product, SaaS setting, or quota need.
• Frontend build assets depend on backend routes or config that are not deployed yet.

Service dependencies and deployment order

• API contract changes affecting web, mobile, workers, indexers, schedulers, or third parties.
• Database migration must run before or after specific service versions.
• Worker should be paused, drained, or deployed after producers.
• Read/write compatibility risks during rolling deploys.
• New background jobs, queues, or cache consumers need infrastructure before application deploy.
• Rollback would be unsafe because schema, data, cache, or queue payloads are not backward compatible.

CI/CD and release automation

• Workflow, Dockerfile, build script, deploy script, package manager, lockfile, or artifact path changed.
• Required build-time env var, secret, binary, system package, or runtime version changed.
• Tag/release workflow depends on files or outputs not updated in the diff.
• Migration, seed, asset upload, or cache purge step is manual but not documented.
• Tests, linters, or type checks disabled or narrowed for release-critical code.

Observability and operations

• New critical path without logs, metrics, traces, health checks, dashboards, or alerts.
• Error handling changed without actionable logs or rollback signal.
• Runbook, release checklist, incident response, or support notes missing for operational changes.
• Kill switch, feature flag, or emergency disable path absent for risky functionality.
• SLO, rate limit, quota, or capacity implication not addressed.

Reportable "unable to verify" cases

• Remote PR diff cannot be fetched.
• Release tag cannot be found and the audit fell back to recent commits.
• Deployment platform config, production secrets, cloud buckets, queues, or external SaaS settings are not accessible from the local repository.
• Owner cannot be inferred from blame/log evidence.
• Diff is too large to inspect fully within the available time or tool limits.