---
title: "Check the service is ready before launch · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/running-the-service/launch-readiness
updated: 2026-10-21
licence: "CC BY 4.0"
licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
---

# Check the service is ready before launch

By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers). Updated 2026-10-21.

For AI agents: [llms.txt](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) is a short guide that sends you to the rules your problem needs, and [rules.json](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/rules.json) holds every rule of this playbook as JSON.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Running the service](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/running-the-service)
- Rule: Before a new service or a large feature takes users, walk through one written checklist. Fix every open item, or give it an owner and a date.
- How: Google's SRE book calls this a launch coordination checklist. Its areas include dependencies, capacity, failure modes, client behaviour and rollout planning. Keep one list in the repository and copy it for each launch. Each item links to the rule it checks, so the list stays short. Plan the rollout itself as [Release to a small share first](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy/staged-rollouts) says. Prove the capacity item with [Test load against a budget](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/testing/non-functional-tests/load-tests).
- Check: Every launch in the last 12 months has a filled checklist in the repository, dated before launch day. Every item is done, or has an owner and a due date.

## Examples

**Using these examples:** they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

### Markdown example

```markdown
## Launch checklist: invoice export (launch 2026-11-16)
- [x] Objectives written for the export journey (service-level-objectives)
- [x] Dashboard and paging alerts with runbook links (service-dashboards, actionable-alerts)
- [x] Load test at twice the expected peak passed (headroom)
- [x] Backups cover the new table, and a timed restore passed (restore-drills)
- [x] Rollback tested on staging (atomic-deploys-with-rollback)
- [ ] Outside check on the export address (owner: Sam, due 2026-11-12)
```

## Sources

- [Google SRE book, Reliable Product Launches at Scale](https://sre.google/sre-book/reliable-product-launches/)

## Related rules

- [Release to a small share first](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/engineering/build-test-and-deploy/staged-rollouts) in Engineering
- [Test load against a budget](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/testing/non-functional-tests/load-tests) in Testing

**For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `<a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/running-the-service/launch-readiness">Agent Wranglers operations playbook</a>`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.

- Previous: [Pin the AI model version you depend on](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/running-the-service/pin-model-versions)
- [Running the service](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/running-the-service)