# Config change without restart semantics: pre-release checklist

Source: https://releasefailures.com/incidents/config-change-without-restart-semantics/
Content version: 1.0.0
Verified on: 2026-10-21
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Definition: A config edit is applied to some instances and not others, producing inconsistent behaviour.
- [ ] PR-01 After a secret rotation, list the secret version each component process holds and confirm none still uses the old version. (test class: Configuration and environment tests)
- [ ] PR-02 Restart every process that loads the secret only at start, in every region, before the old secret is revoked. (test class: Configuration and environment tests)
- [ ] PR-03 Compare the count of service instances with the count of rotated instances per region and confirm the two match. (test class: Configuration and environment tests)
- [ ] PR-04 Record the operator and timestamp for each step of the secret rotation checklist and block closing the change while any step is unrecorded. (test class: Configuration and environment tests)
- [ ] PR-05 Run the feature file generation query against a cluster with only part of the nodes on the new permissions and confirm every node returns the same column count. (test class: Integration tests)
- [ ] PR-06 Confirm the feature file generation query filters on the database name so it cannot return duplicate columns. (test class: Integration tests)
- [ ] PR-07 Confirm the generated feature file stays under the proxy's 200-feature limit before the file is distributed. (test class: Integration tests)
- [ ] PR-08 Halt the rotation rollout when traffic to the port forwarding backend drops below baseline. (test class: Canary and progressive delivery checks)
- [ ] PR-09 Configure the canary to halt propagation of new feature files when 5xx volume rises above baseline in any five-minute distribution window. (test class: Canary and progressive delivery checks)