Library — DistroSource

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9 resources

Checklist · Beginner · 10 min
Pull request ready for review checklist
What a pull request contains before a reviewer is asked to spend time on it.
- Reviewer time is the scarcest resource on a team. Spend it on judgement, not on things a checklist catches.
- ☐ Title states the behaviour change
- ☐ Description says why, not only what
Items 10
Guide · Intermediate · 10 min
Writing a technical design document that gets read
A one-to-two page design doc format that surfaces the decisions and gets review before the code is written.
- A design document exists to get a decision reviewed before it is expensive to change. Most are too long to read or too vague to disagree with. This guide is a format that fits in two pages and invites the disagreement that saves the rework.
- Problem, not solution, first
- The decision and the alternatives
Cheat sheet · Beginner · 5 min
Production readiness cheat sheet
The practices that separate a deployed app from a production system. 4 sections, 16 entries.
- Observability
- Safety
- Delivery
Entries 16
Checklist · Beginner · 10 min
Production deploy checklist
What to verify before and after a production deploy.
- Deploys go wrong in the same ten ways. This list is those ten.
- ☐ Typecheck, tests and build green on the exact commit
- ☐ Migrations applied before the code that needs them
Items 10
Guide · Beginner · 10 min
Reading a codebase you did not write
A method for getting productive in an unfamiliar codebase in a day.
- Every developer inherits code. The difference between a week of confusion and a productive first day is method, not talent. This guide is the method: entry points, one path, conventions, then the change.
- Find the entry points
- Trace one path end to end
Playbook · Advanced · 2h 30m
API rate limiting and abuse protection: playbook
Protect public endpoints from abuse without hurting real users.
- Abuse stopped at the edge while normal use never sees a limit.
- Step 1: Classify endpoints by cost
- Step 2: Limit by key, then by IP
Steps 5Deliverables 3
Playbook · Advanced · 3h
Database migration without downtime: playbook
Change a schema in production safely with expand, migrate, contract.
- Schema changes that never break the running version.
- Step 1: Expand: add, never rename
- Step 2: Write both, read old
Steps 5Deliverables 3
Playbook · Intermediate · 2h
Set up error tracking and alerting: playbook
Capture errors with context, alert on what matters and ignore what does not.
- Every new production error is seen within an hour and known errors do not page anyone.
- Step 1: Instrument with context
- Step 2: Group and name
Steps 5Deliverables 3
Playbook · Intermediate · 3h
Add a feature flag system: playbook
Introduce feature flags so unfinished work ships dark and launches are a switch, not a deploy.
- Any feature can be turned on for a subset of users without a deploy.
- Step 1: Store flags with targeting
- Step 2: Check on the server
Steps 5Deliverables 3

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