Launch Readiness

---
name: launch-readiness
description: Run the Gate 5 release readiness checklist item by item against the delivery documents and the release candidate, and produce a go, no-go, or conditional go with every condition named, owned, and dated. Use when a release is inside two weeks of its target date, when a readiness document is being filled for the first time, when a launch slipped and the checklist needs re-running, or when someone wants to ship on a feeling. Takes the release readiness document, UAT results, rollback evidence, comms drafts, and the runbook; returns the item-by-item verdict table and the decision packet for the gate chair.
---

# Launch Readiness: go, no-go, or conditions with names on them

Launches fail at the gate in one recognizable way: the checklist is ticked from memory, the rollback exists on paper, and support learns about the release from a customer. This skill walks Gate 5 one item at a time, demands evidence in the release candidate for each, and turns "mostly ready" into a conditional go whose conditions each have an owner and a close-by date, or into the no-go it actually is.

## Files this skill drives

- [../../templates/delivery/release-readiness.md](../../templates/delivery/release-readiness.md), the working document and the checklist in one place
- Gate 5 in [../../os/STAGE-GATES.md](../../os/STAGE-GATES.md), whose eight items this skill walks in order
- Reads, as evidence: [../../templates/delivery/uat-plan.md](../../templates/delivery/uat-plan.md), [../../templates/delivery/testing-strategy.md](../../templates/delivery/testing-strategy.md), [../../templates/delivery/edge-cases.md](../../templates/delivery/edge-cases.md), [../../templates/delivery/failure-scenarios.md](../../templates/delivery/failure-scenarios.md), [../../templates/delivery/launch-comms-plan.md](../../templates/delivery/launch-comms-plan.md), [../../templates/operate/operational-readiness-review.md](../../templates/operate/operational-readiness-review.md)
- Overlays: [../../templates/ai/guardrails.md](../../templates/ai/guardrails.md) for model features; the [reg-gap-check skill](../reg-gap-check/SKILL.md) and [../../templates/operate/compliance-impact-assessment.md](../../templates/operate/compliance-impact-assessment.md) for regulated products
- Records: [../../templates/execution/decision-log.md](../../templates/execution/decision-log.md) for the decision, [../../templates/execution/risk-register.md](../../templates/execution/risk-register.md) for accepted known issues
- See also [../../frameworks/metrics/dora-four-keys.md](../../frameworks/metrics/dora-four-keys.md) (Forsgren, Humble, and Kim, 2018) for the rollback and recovery items. "We can roll back" is a belief; a measured time to restore service is a number, and it is also the answer when the fix proposed after a bad launch is to release less often

## When to use

- Two weeks before a target date, as the first full run, and again at the gate itself
- After a slip, because evidence that was true a month ago may not be
- When a function wants to sign "with reservations" and nobody has written the reservations down
- Before releasing a product that contains an AI or machine-learning feature and has a financial or data regulator applying to it, where the overlay items are mandatory. Both halves are required by the rule in [../../os/STAGE-GATES.md](../../os/STAGE-GATES.md)

## Inputs

The filled release readiness document (drafts accepted; the gaps are the point), UAT results, the rollback rehearsal record, comms drafts per audience, and the on-call runbook. Ask for these when missing: the named decider who can say no-go; the Gate 4 misses carried forward and their decisions; the environment and date of the rollback rehearsal; the severity-1 defect list; and, for regulated products, the section 0 answers from Gate 2. Decision rule: if the pre-read was not circulated 48 hours ahead, reschedule the gate rather than walk the room through the document.

## Workflow

### 1. Confirm the frame

Decider named; sign-off owners named per function (a name, not a team); pre-read circulated; every claim to be shown in the release candidate, not on slides. Missing any of these, the gate does not open.

### 2. Walk the eight items

For each Gate 5 item, record the evidence seen, the verdict (pass, condition, or fail), and, for a condition, the owner and the close-by date:

1. **UAT exit criteria met**, with real users or named proxies, and every severity-1 defect closed. Evidence: the signed UAT plan and the defect list. Rule: an open severity-1 is a fail, not a condition.
2. **Rollback performed in pre-production**, with the time to roll back recorded. Evidence: the rehearsal record with date and environment. Rule: a rollback that was designed but never run is a fail; the rehearsal is the cheapest hour of the launch.
3. **Known issues listed**, each with a workaround or an accepted-risk sign-off. Evidence: the known-issues table. Rule: an empty table on a real product is a question, not a pass.
4. **Comms drafted and approved** for support, sales or field teams, and customers where applicable. Evidence: the drafts and the approver's name. Rule: unbriefed support is a condition whose close-by date falls before the release, never after.
5. **On-call knows, and the runbook exists.** Evidence: the runbook link and the on-call acknowledgment. Rule: a runbook nobody on call has read is a condition owned by the on-call lead.
6. **Every function signed its own line**: engineering, product, QA, support, and any others the readiness document names. Rule: a blank line is a no-go from that function until it is filled.
7. **AI overlay**, when a model ships: guardrails verified live in the release candidate, and the kill switch tested. Rule: a kill switch that was designed but never tested is a fail.
8. **Regulated overlay**, where the Gate 2 line fired: the Gate 2 section 0 answers are still true of the artifact that ships; any drift is written up and re-signed by the regulatory owner. Rule: drift without a re-signature is a fail. Where Gate 2 recorded that the shipped overlay did not apply, this item instead re-checks what the regulatory owner used in its place, named; an unnamed substitute is a fail.

### 3. Check the rollback trigger

The trigger is a condition a dashboard can show (an error rate, a latency, a failed reconciliation count), with an owner and the time to roll back. A trigger written as a feeling ("if things look bad") is a condition owned by the release owner, closed before release.

### 4. Decide

Apply the rules in order. Any fail: NO-GO, with the fails listed and the re-run date set. No fails and one or more conditions: CONDITIONAL GO, valid only while every condition has an owner and a close-by date; a condition missing either converts the verdict to NO-GO. No fails and no conditions: GO. The decider records the decision and the one-paragraph reason on the readiness document and on the gate form.

### 5. Record and follow through

Decision log entry with the decider named. Accepted known issues become risk register rows with the signer as risk owner. Each condition gets a check on its close-by date; an open condition at that check is a launch stop, not a re-date.

## Output format

1. Item table: | # | Gate 5 item | Evidence seen | Verdict (pass / condition / fail) | Condition owner | Close-by date |
2. Rollback line: trigger, owner, time to roll back, rehearsal date and environment
3. Recommendation for the decider: GO / NO-GO / CONDITIONAL GO from the step 4 rules, the reason paragraph, and for a conditional go the numbered conditions with owners and dates; the decision line is left blank for the named decider
4. Sign-off table copied from the readiness document, every row named and dated
5. The decision log entry and any risk register rows

## Failure modes this skill guards against

- **The checklist ticked from memory.** Every item needs evidence you can point at, shown in the release candidate.
- **Rollback on paper.** The industry's incident write-ups repeat this line; the rehearsal is not optional.
- **The conditional go with no owners.** A no-go wearing a smile; the conversion rule above removes it.
- **Support learns from customers.** Comms to support close before release, not after.
- **Team names on sign-off lines.** "Engineering" cannot be paged; a person can.
- **Overlay items skipped as not applicable, with no reason.** Write the reason, or run the overlay.
- **Re-dating conditions.** An open condition at its close-by date stops the launch.

## Exit gate

This skill walks Gate 5 in [../../os/STAGE-GATES.md](../../os/STAGE-GATES.md), feeding OPERATE once DELIVER closes. It is done when every item has a verdict with evidence, the recommendation follows the step 4 rules, every condition has an owner and a date, and the decision line is left for the named decider; the decision log entry is written after they record it.

## What checks this

Some checks on this skill run automatically and some depend on a person. This section says which is which. It is generated by `python3 tools/what_checks.py` from the declarations it links to, and CI fails when it falls out of date.

- **Checked by CI on every commit.** This file must carry the seven sections every prose skill carries: `python3 tools/skill_rubric.py --min 7` fails the `skill-rubric` gate in `python3 tools/ci_gate.py` when one is missing. That checks structure, not whether the advice is right.
- **Checked by the runtime.** This skill is declared against Gate 5 in [SKILL.graph.yml](SKILL.graph.yml). Gate 5 is recorded with `pmos gate --bank-id deliver`, which refuses the proof unless every question in that bank has been accepted and the bank is the current one, requires the proof to name its `source`, `source_sha256`, `actor_id`, `requester_id`, `decision` and `approved_at`, and rejects self-approval and any approver the bank does not pin. Approver ids are typed, not authenticated, so a recorded approval is a local attestation, not proof of who signed. If the proof's source changes after approval the gate goes stale and nothing later completes until it is proved again. [The journey run](../../examples/journey-run.md) shows all six gates and a stale gate being proved again.
- **Checked by a person.** The runtime checks who approved and that the evidence has not changed. It does not check whether the reasoning in this skill's Workflow was followed well; that judgment belongs to the people who sign the gate. Gate 5 is signed by the release owner, the product owner, the operations or support lead and the regulatory owner (regulated products only), per the sign-off tables in [os/STAGE-GATES.md](../../os/STAGE-GATES.md).