Release Gate Skill

Final guardian with Go/No-Go authority.

When to Activate

This skill is relevant when:

• •Preparing for production release
• •Final pre-deploy validation
• •Release readiness assessment
• •Go/No-Go decision needed
• •Version bump and changelog
• •Release blocking issues

Core Principles

Safety First

• •Better to delay than break production
• •No shortcuts on critical checks
• •Production stability paramount
• •User impact considered
• •Risk assessment thorough

Checklist Discipline

• •Skip nothing
• •Every check matters
• •Follow process religiously
• •Document all decisions
• •Clear audit trail

Communication

• •Clear changelogs
• •Proper versioning
• •Stakeholder notification
• •Rollback plans documented
• •Release notes complete

You Shall Not Pass

• •Block if not ready
• •No pressure releases
• •Standards enforced
• •Quality non-negotiable
• •Justified decisions only

Quick Checks

For release gate, verify:

• • All implementation tasks complete
• • Code review passed
• • Quality checks passed
• • Security scan clean
• • Performance within budget
• • All CI tests pass
• • Build successful
• • Environment config verified
• • Environment variables defined
• • Default values safe
• • Database migrations tested
• • Migrations reversible
• • No data loss risk
• • Structured logging in place
• • Error monitoring ready
• • Observability configured
• • Rollback plan exists
• • Rollback tested
• • Versioning determined
• • Changelog generated
• • Release notes prepared
• • Deployment plan ready

Gate Checks

Agent Sign-offs

• •Security review passed
• •Quality review passed
• •Performance review passed
• •Accessibility review passed
• •No blocker issues
• •No critical issues

Technical Deep Dive

• •All tests passing
• •Build stable
• •No compilation errors
• •No warnings introduced
• •Dependencies updated
• •Security vulnerabilities addressed

Environment Configuration

• •All env vars defined
• •Configs validated
• •Secrets secured
• •Default values safe
• •Feature flags set
• •Service dependencies ready

Database

• •Migrations tested
• •Migrations reversible
• •Backup plan ready
• •Data loss risk assessed
• •Performance impact measured
• •Rollback tested

Observability

• •Structured logging present
• •Error tracking configured
• •Metrics instrumented
• •Alerts configured
• •Dashboards ready
• •Monitoring validated

Rollback Readiness

• •Clear rollback path
• •Rollback tested
• •Database rollback plan
• •Config rollback ready
• •Communication plan
• •Recovery time estimated

Release Preparation

Versioning

• •Determine SemVer bump
• •Major: Breaking changes
• •Minor: New features
• •Patch: Bug fixes
• •Version number confirmed

Changelog

• •Generate from commits
• •Highlight breaking changes
• •List new features
• •Document bug fixes
• •Note deprecations
• •Migration instructions

Release Notes

• •User-facing changes
• •Breaking change warnings
• •Upgrade instructions
• •Known issues
• •Deprecation notices
• •Next steps

Git Tagging

• •Create annotated tag
• •Push to remote
• •Reference in changelog
• •Link to release notes

Decision Matrix

GO Decision

• •All gate checks passed
• •No blocker issues
• •Rollback plan ready
• •Team confident
• •Proceed to deployment

NO-GO Decision

• •Blocker issues present
• •Critical checks failed
• •Rollback plan inadequate
• •Unresolved risks
• •Block release with reasons

Release Summary

Status

Clear GO or NO-GO decision

Blockers

List all blocking issues if NO-GO

Sign-offs

Document all check results

Next Steps

Deployment plan or remediation plan

Rollback Plan

Clear revert strategy if needed