Deploy gates: how to block broken releases automatically

A deploy gate is a simple contract: if your stack is not healthy, the release does not ship. No manual approval needed. No Slack message asking "did anyone check if Stripe is working?" The gate reads the state of your checks and blocks or allows the deploy automatically.

Why deploy gates matter for SaaS

Traditional CI/CD checks run tests against your code. They verify that the build compiles and unit tests pass. What they do not check: is your Stripe webhook actually receiving events? Is your Supabase database accessible? Are your environment variables correct for production? Deploy gates bridge this gap by verifying your live infrastructure, not just your code.

What a deploy gate should verify

A production-ready deploy gate checks: provider connectivity (Stripe, Supabase, auth, email), webhook delivery, database schema sync, secret exposure, SSL validity, and recent check pass rate. If any critical check is failing, the gate holds the release until the issue is resolved.

GitHub Actions integration

PreFlight exposes a stable API endpoint that returns gate state. Add a step to your GitHub Actions workflow that calls this endpoint before deploy. If the gate is red, the workflow fails and the release is blocked. No new dependencies, no complex configuration — just an HTTP call that returns pass or fail.

Vercel deployment hooks

For Vercel-hosted projects, PreFlight watches deployment events and can gate promotion from preview to production. If your Sentinel detects a failure between the preview deploy and promotion, the gate holds. This catches issues that only appear in the production environment configuration.

When the gate blocks: what to do

A blocked release is not a failure — it is a save. Check the PreFlight dashboard for the specific failing probe. Fix the root cause (rotate a key, fix a webhook route, sync a migration). Rerun the check. When it passes, the gate opens and your release ships clean.