A release checklist should reflect the actual change being deployed. A dependency update, a database migration, and a UI fix have different failure modes even when they share the same delivery pipeline.
Prepare the task
Provide the release diff, deployment configuration, migration notes, and current runbook. Identify the target environment and which actions the agent may perform; preparation does not require deploying anything.
Work through it with your agent
Identify what changes
Find a release review skill and ask the agent to map the diff to affected services, environment variables, external dependencies, and startup requirements.
Check ordering and recovery
Review compatibility between old and new service versions. For schema or data changes, identify whether rollback is supported and what must be preserved before rollout.
Define observable success
Choose smoke checks for the changed behavior alongside service health. State which failures should halt deployment and who can make the recovery decision.
Find a starting skill
Review a release and prepare a deployment checklist
Task searches use OpenAI for semantic matching. Keep secrets and repository contents out of the search text. Review the suggested skill’s source and instructions before using it.
What to ask for
A release-specific checklist with prerequisites, deployment order, smoke commands, expected results, and recovery steps tied to a known artifact or revision.
Review the result
Run checks against the intended environment and confirm that commands do not expose credentials. Treat successful startup as one signal; verify the user workflow affected by the release as well.
Continue the workflow
Connect Claude Code or Codex, then copy the pinned agent prompt from a public skill page.
Related workflow: Agent skills for authentication and authorization reviews.