Building Block #08: Deployment

Status: 📋 Planned
Dependencies: All previous building blocks (#01-07)
Context: Solo Developer + AI

Definition

Set up complete deployment infrastructure with:

• CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions)
• Railway deployment (initial)
• GCP deployment (future)
• Environment configuration
• Monitoring setup
• Rollback strategy

Dependencies

• ✅ Building Block #01: Database Setup
• ✅ Building Block #02: Authentication
• ✅ Building Block #03: RBAC Implementation
• ✅ Building Block #04: Multi-Tenancy
• ✅ Building Block #05: API Foundation
• ✅ Building Block #06: Frontend Foundation
• ✅ Building Block #07: AI Service Setup

Implementation Checklist

GATE 1: BUILD

CI/CD Pipeline

• Set up GitHub Actions
• Create build workflow
• Create test workflow
• Create deploy workflow
• Configure environment secrets
• Test CI/CD pipeline

Railway Deployment (Initial)

• Set up Railway account
• Create Railway project
• Configure backend service
• Configure frontend service
• Configure database (PostgreSQL)
• Set up environment variables
• Deploy to Railway
• Test deployment

GCP Setup (Future)

• Set up Google Cloud Project
• Configure Cloud Run services
• Set up Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)
• Set up Cloud Storage
• Configure Secret Manager
• Set up MongoDB Atlas
• Document GCP setup (for future migration)

Environment Configuration

• Create .env.example files
• Document required environment variables
• Set up environment variable validation
• Configure dev/staging/prod environments
• Test environment configuration

Monitoring Setup

• Set up basic logging
• Configure error tracking (basic)
• Set up health check endpoints
• Document monitoring approach
• Test monitoring

Rollback Strategy

• Document rollback process
• Test rollback on Railway
• Create rollback scripts
• Document rollback procedures

GATE 2: TEST

• Test CI/CD pipeline
• Test Railway deployment
• Test environment configuration
• Test health checks
• Test rollback process
• Write deployment tests
• All tests passing

GATE 3: REVIEW & APPROVE

• Self-review deployment setup
• Verify CI/CD pipeline works
• Check environment configuration
• Review monitoring setup
• Document approval reasoning
• Status: ✅ APPROVED

GATE 4: DOCUMENT

• Document CI/CD pipeline
• Document Railway deployment
• Document GCP setup (for future)
• Document environment variables
• Document monitoring
• Document rollback process
• Create ADR for deployment strategy (if not exists)
• Update .cursorrules with deployment patterns
• Update CLAUDE.md with deployment setup
• Update memory log

GATE 5: COMMIT & TAG

• Git commit with clear message: "Building Block #08: Deployment complete"
• Tag: building-block-08-deployment
• Push to main
• Update status tracker

Testing Requirements

Unit Tests

• Environment configuration
• Health check endpoints
• Deployment scripts

Integration Tests

• CI/CD pipeline
• Deployment process
• Rollback process

Documentation Requirements

• CI/CD pipeline documentation
• Railway deployment guide
• GCP setup guide (for future)
• Environment variables documentation
• Monitoring guide
• Rollback procedure guide
• ADR for deployment strategy

Approval Criteria

Building block is complete when:

• ✅ CI/CD pipeline working
• ✅ Railway deployment working
• ✅ Environment configuration working
• ✅ Monitoring setup working
• ✅ Rollback strategy documented
• ✅ All tests passing
• ✅ Documentation complete

AI Context

What AI needs to know:

• Railway for initial deployment (simple)
• GCP for production (future migration)
• GitHub Actions for CI/CD
• Environment variables in platform (NOT in code)
• Health checks for monitoring
• Rollback via git tags

Patterns to follow:

• CI/CD: test → build → deploy
• Environment variables: platform secrets
• Monitoring: health checks + logging
• Rollback: git tag → redeploy

Next Steps

After completion of Building Blocks #01-08:

• Foundation is complete
• Can add Redis caching (Building Block #09) in Month 2
• Can add BullMQ + Events (Building Block #10) in Month 4
• Can start feature building blocks (#11-14)

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Last Updated: 2025-11-27