Schema drift between services: pre-release and first 30 minutes checklists

Two services expect different versions of a shared schema after one is deployed without the other.

The pre-release checklist maps each item to a test class from the incident page. The first-30-minutes checklist covers detection, containment, the rollback decision and customer communication.

7 pre-release items · 7 first-30-minutes items · verified 2026-10-21

Pre-release checklist

PR-01Run consumer contract tests for each changed internal API against the provider version currently in production, not only the one in the same commit. contract
PR-02Fail the merge when an internal service contract changes without a version bump or a backward-compatible fallback. contract
PR-03Confirm every routing endpoint a new client SDK calls exists in the deployed version of the service it targets. contract
PR-04Compare the deployed version of every service in the release with the release manifest after the deployment job finishes. config
PR-05Fail the deployment job if any service listed in the manifest was skipped. config
PR-06Add canary alerts on 400 and 404 response rates for calls between internal services. canary
PR-07Deploy the provider service first and hold the consumer rollout until the provider canary passes. canary

First 30 minutes

FM-01List the deployed version of each service on both sides of the failing call and compare it with the release manifest.
FM-02Read the 400 and 404 rates on calls between those services, since these responses may have no alert.
FM-03Stop any rolling deployment still in progress for the affected services.
FM-04Roll back the service whose contract changed, or deploy the lagging service, whichever restores matching versions faster.
FM-05Export the jobs and requests that failed during the mismatch window and queue them for retry.
FM-06Post a status update that names the failing feature and the affected regions or clusters.
FM-07Send the customers whose jobs failed the count of failed jobs and their retry status.

Download the checklist

Pre-release checklist (Markdown)1.4 KB · v1.0.0
First 30 minutes checklist (Markdown)1.1 KB · v1.0.0

Only in this checklist

PR-01 is the only item among 7 published checklists in this group that relies on contract tests: Run consumer contract tests for each changed internal API against the provider version currently in production, not only the one in the same commit.

Questions

What should be checked before a release to prevent Schema drift between services?

7 pre-release items, PR-01 to PR-07. PR-01: Run consumer contract tests for each changed internal API against the provider version currently in production, not only the one in the same commit.

Is there a rollback plan for Schema drift between services?

The first-30-minutes checklist has 7 items. FM-01: List the deployed version of each service on both sides of the failing call and compare it with the release manifest.

What should a team do in the first 30 minutes after Schema drift between services is detected?

The first-30-minutes checklist has 7 items. FM-01: List the deployed version of each service on both sides of the failing call and compare it with the release manifest.

Which configuration checks apply to Schema drift between services?

PR-04: Compare the deployed version of every service in the release with the release manifest after the deployment job finishes. PR-05: Fail the deployment job if any service listed in the manifest was skipped.

Is a Schema drift between services checklist still needed if deployment is automated?

Yes. Automation runs the steps; the checklist names what the tests must cover: contract tests, configuration and environment tests and canary and progressive delivery checks.

Which pipeline stages does the Schema drift between services checklist cover?

The pre-release items map to the pre-merge, pre-deploy and post-deploy stages.