Release Go/No-Go Review
Run the same six-gate checklist every time for a repeatable go/no-go verdict with blockers, rollout checks, and a recovery plan.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
Before you deploy, there are several things you should verify. Your tests should be passing, and you'd want to make sure your changes don't break existing functionality. You should review the diff to catch any obvious issues. Check that you haven't accidentally committed debug code or secrets. Verify that dependencies are properly updated. Make sure rollback procedures are documented. It helps to have a checklist so nothing gets missed. What's the scope of your deployment?
PRE-SHIP CHECKLIST TEST VERIFICATION OK: Unit tests passing: 245/245 OK: Integration tests passing: 12/12 OK: E2E tests passing: 8/8 (checkout flow, auth, main user paths) OK: Coverage delta: 82% maintained (no regressions) Status: PASS CODE REVIEW OK: Diff reviewed: 1,240 lines, 8 files OK: No debugging code (console.log, debugger statements) OK: No hardcoded secrets or API keys OK: No large assets committed Status: PASS DEPENDENCY CHECK OK: package.json updated OK: npm audit clean (zero critical vulnerabilities) OK: Breaking changes reviewed (3 minor bumps, no breaking) OK: Migrations run on staging successfully Status: PASS SECURITY GATE OK: Authentication logic unchanged OK: Authorization checks in place (user ID validation, role checks) OK: No new SQL queries (uses ORM consistently) OK: CORS headers correct (no overly permissive settings) Status: PASS PERFORMANCE CHECK OK: Page load time stable (±2% variance) OK: Database queries optimized (index scan verified) OK: No new N+1 queries introduced Status: PASS ROLLBACK READINESS OK: Rollback procedure documented: revert to commit abc123d OK: Database migration reversible: down migration tested OK: Cache invalidation plan: Redis keys to clear on rollback Status: READY FINAL SIGN-OFF Deployed by: Sarah Chen Deploy time: 2026-07-31 14:32 UTC Expected propagation: 5 minutes Monitoring: Alert on error spike, latency increase, auth failures ALL GATES PASSED. READY FOR PRODUCTION.
About this skill
The PR is green, but can this change actually ship? A passing build can still hide an incompatible migration, an untested billing branch, or a rollback that leaves production data broken. This review applies the same six gates in the same order every time to the exact release candidate and turns those uncertainties into a clear go/no-go decision.
What it does
- Compares the stated change with the actual diff and identifies release-critical dependencies.
- Checks whether test evidence covers changed behavior and belongs to the candidate being released.
- Reviews schema, API, configuration, and background-job compatibility during mixed-version operation.
- Separates application rollback from recovery of changed data and external side effects.
- Defines rollout checks, stop conditions, and the human review required for sensitive changes.
- Returns specific blockers with closure evidence, so the next review checks what actually changed.
What you get
A compact release decision identifying the candidate, reviewed evidence, unresolved blockers, rollout sequence, and recovery path. Missing evidence is labeled explicitly rather than treated as a passing check.
Best for
Engineers and release owners preparing a PR merge, production deployment, database migration, or urgent hotfix who need a repeatable final gate.
SKILL.md preview
---
name: release-go-no-go-review
description: >-
Run a repeatable six-gate pre-release checklist against an existing release candidate, covering its diff, test evidence, compatibility constraints, observability, and recovery path, then issue an evidence-backed go/no-go verdict with concrete blocker closure criteria. Use when the user says "can this ship?", "run a release gate", "is this PR ready to merge?", "check this deploy before production", "we need to rush this hotfix", "CI is green but releases keep breaking", or "does this migration have a safe rollback?".
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