Release Pattern — Context

Pattern: Release
Component: context.md
Version: 1.1 | Updated: 2026-07-16

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Preconditions (must be true before activation)

• Artifact identified by digest (not mutable tag alone)
• Provenance / attestation available for the digest
• Required gates green for this digest (tests, security, SBOM policy)
• Change ticket / release notes identify risk tier and window
• Feature flag or traffic splitter configured for progressive exposure
• Abort criteria written with metric, threshold, window, and owner
• Rollback command rehearsed in staging (or last drill date recorded)
• Named go/no-go human for medium/high risk

Trigger conditions (apply the pattern)

Apply when any of the following hold:

• Production or customer-facing environment will run new bits
• Schema/data migration accompanies the release
• Model/prompt/tool bundle changes in an AI path
• SLO-sensitive service or payments/identity/data plane
• Organizational policy requires progressive delivery

Do not apply when

• No runtime artifact changes
• Hotfix under incident commander using emergency path (hotfix-pattern)
• Artifact is unsigned/unattested and policy forbids it — fix attestation, do not “release anyway”
• Canary infrastructure is down — fix delivery platform first or explicitly accept big-bang with executive risk acceptance (recorded)

Required inputs

Input	Source	Minimum quality
Artifact digest	CI / registry	Immutable digest
Gate results	CI / security	Linked to digest
SBOM / deps policy	Supply chain job	Policy pass/fail
Runbook	Ops	Rollback steps
SLO baseline	APM	Pre-canary window
Flag / split key	Flag service	Killable in <5m

Authority boundary

The release agent drafts the go/no-go package. Humans decide Go/No-Go. Canary Controller may auto-abort on pre-declared criteria; it may not silently raise thresholds.