Production Deployment Checklist

Moving Smart Money API integration to production requires careful planning. This checklist covers security hardening, monitoring setup, backup systems, and incident response. Following these steps ensures reliable trading bot operation 24/7.

Pre-Deployment Checklist

• Security Review: API keys in secure vaults (not code), HTTPS enforced, rate limiting implemented, timeout handling in place
• Testing Complete: Unit tests passing, integration tests on sandbox environment passing, load testing shows acceptable performance (p99 latency < 2s)
• Monitoring Configured: Error tracking (Sentry), performance monitoring (New Relic), logging aggregation (DataDog), alerting rules set
• Backup Systems: Failover API endpoints configured, local cache fallback for API failures, database backups scheduled
• Documentation: Runbook for incident response, architecture diagrams, dependency list, API key rotation procedures

Security Hardening

Store API keys in environment variables or secret management systems (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager). Rotate keys monthly. Implement IP whitelisting if available. Use HTTPS exclusively. Enable request signing for sensitive operations. Implement rate limiting client-side to stay below quotas.

Error Handling

Implement exponential backoff for transient failures (429, 503). Implement circuit breakers to fail fast. Log all errors with context. Alert immediately on authentication failures. Have manual trading procedures ready if bot fails.

Monitoring & Alerting

Monitor API response times, error rates, quota usage. Alert on p95 latency > 1s, error rate > 1%, quota > 80%. Set up webhooks for critical alerts. Implement synthetic monitoring (test API every 5 minutes).

Deployment Process

Deploy to staging first. Run 24 hours in sandbox. Gradually ramp production traffic (10% day 1, 50% day 2, 100% day 3). Monitor metrics at each step. Have instant rollback procedure ready.