Vibe Production Mindset

vibe-production-mindset

The gap between "works on my machine" and "works in production" is where incidents live.

When to Use This Skill

• Starting any implementation that will run in production
• When implementing API endpoints, data processing, or user-facing features
• Before declaring a feature "done"
• When the user cares about production quality

When NOT to Use This Skill

• Prototypes or spikes explicitly marked as throwaway
• Internal scripts that run once
• Test code (different quality criteria)
• When the user says "just get it working"

The Checklist

Imagine this code serves 1 million users. Check:

1. Observability

• [ ] Structured logging at key decision points (not just errors)
• [ ] Tracing/correlation ID propagated through the request
• [ ] Metrics for key operations (latency, success/failure counts)
• [ ] Alerts defined for anomalies

2. Error Handling at System Boundaries

• [ ] External API calls have timeouts
• [ ] External API calls have retries with backoff
• [ ] File I/O handles "file not found" and "permission denied"
• [ ] Network errors are handled (connection refused, timeout, DNS failure)
• [ ] Database errors are handled (connection lost, constraint violation)

3. Input Validation

• [ ] All external input validated before processing
• [ ] Size limits on string/array inputs
• [ ] SQL injection prevention (parameterized queries)
• [ ] XSS prevention (output encoding)
• [ ] Authentication checked before authorization

4. Graceful Degradation

• [ ] Circuit breakers for external dependencies
• [ ] Fallback behavior when dependencies are unavailable
• [ ] Graceful shutdown (drain connections, finish in-flight)
• [ ] Health check endpoint

5. Resource Management

• [ ] Connections closed/returned to pool
• [ ] Goroutines/threads have lifecycle management
• [ ] Memory bounded (no unbounded growth)
• [ ] File handles closed

Steps

1. Read the implementation
2. Run through the checklist — not every item applies to every feature
3. Flag gaps — only for items that DO apply
4. Recommend fixes — specific, not generic

Output Format

Production Readiness: [Feature Name]

Overall: READY / NEEDSWORK / NOTREADY

| Category | Status | Gaps | |----------|--------|------| | Observability | ✓/◐/✗ | [count] | | Error Handling | ✓/◐/✗ | [count] | | Input Validation | ✓/◐/✗ | [count] | | Graceful Degradation | ✓/◐/✗ | [count] | | Resource Management | ✓/◐/✗ | [count] |

Critical Gaps

1. [Gap with specific file:line and fix suggestion]

Note

This is NOT about over-engineering. It's about not under-engineering the critical paths. A simple feature should have simple production hardening — logging, error handling, and input validation. Not every feature needs circuit breakers.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ash1794
• Source: ash1794/vibe-engineering
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.