Pause a release when deployment state drifts
A manual fixture change replaces one replica image, but the release controller continues and records the target digest as complete.
- Focused work estimate
- 4h + prerequisites
- Priority in the scenario
- High
- Engineering practice
- Reconciliation · Configuration drift
Estimated field mix
- DevOps70%
- Platform engineering30%
Field percentages are editorial estimates of the ticket's engineering focus. They total 100%; they are not measured time, proficiency scores, or ownership evidence.
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Project context
A fictional scheduling API is rebuilt separately for test, staging, and production-like local environments. The resulting images differ, release notes list the branch instead of the artifact, and rollback rebuilds old source with new dependencies. Use a local registry simulator and synthetic deployments; no cluster or customer traffic is supplied.
Setup prerequisites
- Artifact digests
- Release states
- Health checks
Preceding work
Complete these dependencies, or supply their agreed outputs before taking this ticket.
Acceptance criteria
- Reconciliation compares desired and observed digest per instance
- Unexpected drift pauses rollout and identifies affected instances
- Repair requires an explicit decision to restore desired state or adopt a new release
Implementation constraints
- Do not overwrite drift before recording it.
Verification to include
- Complete a rollout whose observations match the release.
- Change one instance out of band and confirm the controller pauses without erasing evidence.
Deliverables
- Drift detector and paused-release flow
Rollout and recovery
Begin with report-only drift detection in the simulator.
Value of the work
For the engineer: Practice immutable promotion, release authority, compatibility gates, canaries, and rollback.
For the team: Review a delivery flow that can identify exactly what is running and restore a known artifact without rebuilding it.
Evidence boundaries
Outcome Evidence: Tests, patches, and runbooks are requested deliverables. They become Outcome Evidence only through a qualified Mission and immutable Evidence IDs.
Ownership Evidence: Independent adaptation must be observed under a declared verification policy and cite immutable Evidence IDs. Completing a planning ticket establishes no Ownership Evidence.