Deployments are smoke-tested before success
ops-003
Intent
Prevent broken releases from being marked complete when the process started but the service cannot actually do its job.
Applicability
Applies when the diff changes deployment automation, service startup, or deploy-time dependency wiring.
What to inspect
Post-deploy hooks, rollout jobs, health waits, smoke-test commands, and checks for required dependencies.
Pass criteria
Deployment automation includes an automated post-deploy verification step that fails the rollout when the service or its critical dependencies are unavailable.
Fail criteria
The deployment is treated as successful with no automated verification beyond file copy, process start, or pod creation.
Do not flag
Platform-native health waits that the rollout actually honors.
Confidence guidance
HIGH when deployment automation visibly lacks post-deploy validation. MEDIUM when checks exist but only prove process startup. LOW when deployment validation is external.
Remediation
Add an automated post-deploy smoke test that checks real service readiness.
Pass example
./bin/start-app
curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8080/ready
Fail example
./bin/start-app
echo "deploy complete"