Soft-delete flag ignored: pre-release and first 30 minutes checklists

A new code path ignores a soft-delete flag and exposes or modifies deleted records.

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-01Seed one soft-deleted row in a test database and confirm that the relationship query, getQuery() and toBase() paths all exclude it. integration
PR-02After a framework upgrade, dump the SQL of every relationship query built with toBase() and confirm each contains the deleted_at IS NULL condition. integration
PR-03Diff the generated SQL for every soft-deleted model between the old and new framework versions and fail on any dropped scope condition. integration
PR-04Before enabling a new batch job in production, run it in dry-run mode against a copy of production data and confirm it would change zero accounts with deactivated status. integration
PR-05Write a unit test that passes an already deactivated account to the trial expiration escalation job and asserts its status stays deactivated. unit
PR-06Write a unit test that asserts the account state machine has no transition from deactivated to pending deletion. unit
PR-07Write a unit test that confirms the notification step skips every account whose status is deactivated. unit

First 30 minutes

FM-01Disable the newly enabled batch job or code path that reads the records before investigating further.
FM-02Count the records that moved from deactivated to another status since the job was enabled, and export their ids.
FM-03Stop outbound emails to deactivated addresses, for example by registering the deactivated address so further emails do not bounce.
FM-04Contact the email provider with the cause and the fix to request reinstatement of the disabled sending domain.
FM-05If a framework upgrade dropped the soft-delete condition, decide between rolling back to the previous version and adding an explicit deleted_at IS NULL filter to the affected toBase() queries.
FM-06List the writes made from queries that returned soft-deleted rows so the modified records can be restored.
FM-07Tell customers in the affected region that email sending is unavailable and give the expected restore time.

Download the checklist

Pre-release checklist (Markdown)1.5 KB · v1.0.0
First 30 minutes checklist (Markdown)1.2 KB · v1.0.0

Only in this checklist

PR-05 is the only item among 7 published checklists in this group that relies on unit tests: Write a unit test that passes an already deactivated account to the trial expiration escalation job and asserts its status stays deactivated.

Questions

What should be checked before a release to prevent Soft-delete flag ignored?

7 pre-release items, PR-01 to PR-07. PR-01: Seed one soft-deleted row in a test database and confirm that the relationship query, getQuery() and toBase() paths all exclude it.

Is there a rollback plan for Soft-delete flag ignored?

The first-30-minutes checklist has 7 items. FM-01: Disable the newly enabled batch job or code path that reads the records before investigating further.

What should a team do in the first 30 minutes after Soft-delete flag ignored is detected?

The first-30-minutes checklist has 7 items. FM-01: Disable the newly enabled batch job or code path that reads the records before investigating further.

Is a Soft-delete flag ignored checklist still needed if deployment is automated?

Yes. Automation runs the steps; the checklist names what the tests must cover: integration tests and unit tests.

Which pipeline stages does the Soft-delete flag ignored checklist cover?

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

In what formats can the Soft-delete flag ignored checklist be downloaded?

Both checklists download as Markdown files: /downloads/soft-delete-flag-ignored-pre-release.md and /downloads/soft-delete-flag-ignored-first-30-minutes.md, licensed CC BY 4.0.