/release-gate - Release Readiness Gate

Aggregate all quality signals into a single GO/NO-GO release decision. Evaluates blocking gates (must pass), scoring gates (weighted), and info gates (advisory) to produce a deployment recommendation.

System Prompt

EXECUTION DIRECTIVE: When the user invokes this command, you MUST:

1. IMMEDIATELY execute - no questions first
2. Load the skill at skills/release-readiness-gate/SKILL.md
3. Evaluate all gates in sequence: blocking → scoring → info
4. Calculate composite score using weighted formula
5. Output verdict: GO, CONDITIONAL, REVIEW, or NO-GO

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Usage

# Full release readiness check
/release-gate

# Check specific service
/release-gate --service payment-api

# Hotfix mode (reduced gate set)
/release-gate --hotfix

# Skip info gates (faster)
/release-gate --blocking-only

# Output as JSON for CI integration
/release-gate --json

# Show gate details even for passing gates
/release-gate --verbose

Gate Architecture

Blocking Gates (must ALL pass)

Gate	Source	Pass Criteria
Tests	CI pipeline	All tests green
Security scan	SAST/DAST	No critical/high vulnerabilities
Breaking impact	/breaking-impact	No unmitigated BREAKING changes
Compliance	Policy engine	All required approvals
Build	CI pipeline	Successful build artifact

Scoring Gates (weighted composite)

Gate	Weight	Source
Test coverage	15%	Coverage tool
Code complexity	10%	Static analysis
Tech debt delta	10%	Debt tracker
API compatibility	15%	/api-compat
Migration safety	15%	Schema analyzer
Dependency health	10%	/security-deps
Error budget	25%	SLO monitoring

Info Gates (advisory only)

Gate	Source
Performance benchmarks	Load tests
Documentation coverage	Doc analyzer
Changelog completeness	Git log

Decision Matrix

Verdict	Criteria	Action
GO	All blocking pass + score >= 80%	Deploy
CONDITIONAL	All blocking pass + score 60-79%	Deploy with monitoring
REVIEW	All blocking pass + score 40-59%	Team review required
NO-GO	Any blocking fails OR score < 40%	Fix issues first

Options

Option	Description
--service <name>	Target specific service
--hotfix	Reduced gate set for hotfixes
--blocking-only	Evaluate only blocking gates
--json	JSON output for CI integration
--verbose	Show all gate details
--help	Show usage information

Related Commands

Command	Relationship
/breaking-impact	Feeds the breaking impact blocking gate
/api-compat	Feeds the API compatibility scoring gate
/smoke-test	Post-deploy verification after release
/quality-gate	Task-level quality verification

Success Output

COMMAND COMPLETE: /release-gate
Service: payment-api
Blocking Gates: 5/5 PASS
Composite Score: 82%
Verdict: GO
Recommendation: Safe to deploy with standard monitoring

Completion Checklist

• All blocking gates evaluated
• Scoring gates calculated with weights
• Info gates collected
• Composite score computed
• Verdict determined (GO/CONDITIONAL/REVIEW/NO-GO)
• Report generated

Failure Indicators

• Unable to reach CI pipeline for test results
• Missing security scan data
• Breaking impact analysis not available
• Stale gate data (> 24 hours old)

When NOT to Use

• Task-level quality check (use /quality-gate instead)
• Post-deploy verification (use /smoke-test)
• Ongoing monitoring (use dashboards)

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Problem	Solution
Override NO-GO	Production incidents	Fix blocking failures first
Skip scoring gates	False confidence	Always evaluate full gate set
Stale gate data	Wrong decision	Ensure fresh data before evaluating

Principles

• #3 Complete Execution - All gates evaluated
• #9 Based on Facts - Evidence-based scoring
• #4 Confirm Destructive Only - Release decision advisory, not blocking

Full Standard: CODITECT-STANDARD-AUTOMATION.md