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Gap: CI/CD Pipeline & Deployment Process

Status: 🟢 Documented (2026-05-07) — implementation closes with Foundation 1E.3 Priority: Critical (Pre-Launch) Estimated Effort: 2-3 days

Resolution. This gap is documented in reference/deployment.md (CI/CD pipeline + runbooks), reference/iac-layout.md (Terraform module structure), and architecture/aws-infrastructure.md (the topology those docs deploy to). Implementation closes with Foundation 1E.3.

The text below is preserved as the original gap statement.

What's Missing

Complete CI/CD workflow documentation including:

  • Build Pipeline

    • GitHub Actions workflow configuration
    • Build steps (lint, test, compile)
    • Docker image building and tagging
    • Dependency management and caching
  • Automated Testing in CI

    • Unit tests execution
    • Integration tests with test database
    • RLS policy validation
    • Code coverage reporting and thresholds
  • Migration Strategy

    • Automated migration execution in staging
    • Migration rollback procedures
    • Schema validation before deployment
    • Data integrity checks post-migration
  • Deployment Process

    • AWS App Runner deployment configuration (GitHub Actions → ECR → App Runner auto-deploy)
    • Environment variable management (AWS Secrets Manager)
    • Secret rotation procedures
    • Zero-downtime deployment strategy
  • Environment Management

    • Development → Staging → Production flow
    • Environment-specific configurations
    • Database seeding for each environment
    • Feature flags (if used)
  • Rollback Procedures

    • When to rollback vs. roll forward
    • Database migration rollback
    • Application version rollback
    • Incident communication during rollback

Why Critical

  1. Deployment Safety - Manual deployments are error-prone
  2. HIPAA Audit Trail - Need documented deployment history
  3. Uptime Requirements - 99.5% SLA requires reliable deployments
  4. Team Confidence - Developers need to trust the deployment process

Current State

  • GitHub Actions → ECR → App Runner auto-deploys on push to main (mentioned)
  • No documented pipeline steps
  • No rollback procedures
  • No migration automation details

Impact of Gap

  • Fear of deploying (lack of confidence)
  • Potential downtime during manual deployments
  • Difficulty debugging failed deployments
  • No clear owner of deployment process

docs/deployment/ directory with:

  • README.md - Deployment overview
  • cicd-pipeline.md - Complete pipeline documentation
  • environments.md - Environment configuration
  • migrations.md - Migration automation
  • rollback.md - Rollback procedures
  • aws-infrastructure.md - AWS-specific configuration (App Runner, RDS, ElastiCache, VPC)

Dependencies

  • Testing strategy (to know what tests to run in CI)
  • Secret management approach
  • Migration tooling decisions

Success Criteria

  • [ ] Complete GitHub Actions workflow documented
  • [ ] Deployment process from commit to production documented
  • [ ] Rollback procedure tested and documented
  • [ ] Migration automation working in all environments
  • [ ] Zero-downtime deployment verified
  • [ ] Team trained on deployment process