advanced · 28 minute study
Deploy the artifact you actually verified
A green development screen is not a deployed product. A release connects a known source revision to a tested artifact and an observable destination.
Useful preparation · 2 prerequisites
Use this as a map, not a lock. If these ideas are familiar, continue.
- Choose rendering by freshness, authority and cost — Rendering strategy is a product decision about when HTML is produced and where data becomes available. It determines what hosting can support.
- Read package.json as an executable project contract — A repository is more than source files. Its runtime, dependencies, lockfile and scripts determine whether another engineer can reproduce its behavior.
First, build a mental model
A deployment promotes a specific artifact. DNS locates a service, HTTPS protects transport, and a CDN distributes responses; none of these prove that the artifact contains the intended feature.
- Separate source revision, dependency installation, build, checks, artifact and destination. A pipeline should make each transition visible and stop required promotion when its gate fails.
- For a static Next.js export, inspect the emitted out directory and its supported routes/assets. Test direct deep links and missing assets rather than relying solely on client navigation during development.
- DNS maps names through its record/resolver system, while HTTPS adds authenticated encrypted transport. A CDN can reduce delivery distance and reuse eligible content, but caching must respect freshness and privacy.
- Preview and production are different destinations. A rollback may restore an older application artifact; it does not automatically undo database migrations, user actions or browser-local progress.
{
"revision": "example-revision",
"build": "not-run",
"tests": "not-run",
"artifactDirectory": "out",
"destination": "preview",
"deployed": false
}
- Candidate
The illustrative manifest names a candidate and destination but truthfully records no execution.
- Artifact
Only a successful real build and artifact inspection can establish that expected static files exist.
- Promotion
A deploy outcome and smoke readback must identify the actual destination and served revision.
Production thinking
Take this beyond the example.
Use immutable versioned assets with deliberate cache rules for changing entry points. Keep release identity and failure evidence visible. A static product still needs route, header, accessibility and browser checks.
Your evidence
unseen is a local learning signal, not a credential or proof of production competence.
Explain the mental model, then explicitly acknowledge it. Opening a page is not evidence.
Supported retries can complete this lesson. Independent evidence and delayed review determine the skill stage.
Next lesson · Measure the experience and prove the offline boundary →