---
name: anth-prod-checklist
description: |
  Execute production deployment checklist for Claude API integrations.
  Use when deploying Claude-powered features to production,
  preparing for launch, or implementing go-live validation.
  Trigger with phrases like "anthropic production", "deploy claude",
  "claude go-live", "anthropic launch checklist", "production ready claude".
allowed-tools: Read, Bash(curl:*), Grep
version: 1.0.0
license: MIT
author: Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io>
tags: [saas, ai, anthropic]
compatible-with: claude-code
---

# Anthropic Production Checklist

## Overview

Complete checklist for deploying Claude API integrations to production with reliability, observability, and cost controls.

## Pre-Launch Checklist

### Authentication & Keys
- [ ] Production API key from dedicated Workspace
- [ ] Key stored in secret manager (not env files on servers)
- [ ] Key rotation procedure documented and tested
- [ ] Separate keys for each environment (dev/staging/prod)

### Error Handling
- [ ] All 5 error types handled: `authentication_error`, `invalid_request_error`, `rate_limit_error`, `api_error`, `overloaded_error`
- [ ] SDK `maxRetries` set (recommended: 3-5 for production)
- [ ] Custom error logging with `request-id` captured
- [ ] Circuit breaker for sustained API failures

### Rate Limits & Cost
- [ ] Usage tier verified at [console.anthropic.com](https://console.anthropic.com/settings/limits)
- [ ] Application-level rate limiting implemented
- [ ] Cost alerts configured (monthly spend caps)
- [ ] Model selection optimized (Haiku for simple tasks, Sonnet for complex)
- [ ] `max_tokens` set to realistic values (not inflated)
- [ ] Prompt caching enabled for repeated system prompts

### Reliability
- [ ] Timeout configured (`timeout` parameter, recommended 60-120s)
- [ ] Graceful degradation when API is unavailable
- [ ] Health check endpoint tests API connectivity

```python
async def health_check():
    try:
        # Use token counting as a cheap health probe (no generation cost)
        count = client.messages.count_tokens(
            model="claude-haiku-4-20250514",
            messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "ping"}]
        )
        return {"status": "healthy", "tokens": count.input_tokens}
    except Exception as e:
        return {"status": "degraded", "error": str(e)}
```

### Observability
- [ ] Request/response logging (redact content, keep metadata)
- [ ] Latency tracking (p50, p95, p99)
- [ ] Token usage tracking (input + output per request)
- [ ] Cost tracking per feature/customer
- [ ] Error rate alerting (429s, 5xx, timeouts)

```python
import logging
import time

logger = logging.getLogger("anthropic")

def tracked_create(**kwargs):
    start = time.monotonic()
    try:
        response = client.messages.create(**kwargs)
        duration = time.monotonic() - start
        logger.info(
            "claude_request",
            extra={
                "request_id": response._request_id,
                "model": response.model,
                "input_tokens": response.usage.input_tokens,
                "output_tokens": response.usage.output_tokens,
                "duration_ms": int(duration * 1000),
                "stop_reason": response.stop_reason,
            }
        )
        return response
    except Exception as e:
        duration = time.monotonic() - start
        logger.error("claude_error", extra={"error": str(e), "duration_ms": int(duration * 1000)})
        raise
```

### Content Safety
- [ ] System prompts reviewed for injection resistance
- [ ] User input validated and length-limited
- [ ] Output scanned for sensitive data leakage
- [ ] Content moderation for user-facing responses

### Infrastructure
- [ ] Deployment uses canary/rolling strategy
- [ ] Rollback procedure documented and tested
- [ ] Runbook created (see `anth-incident-runbook`)
- [ ] On-call escalation path defined

## Alerting Thresholds

| Metric | Warning | Critical |
|--------|---------|----------|
| Error rate (5xx) | > 1% | > 5% |
| p99 latency | > 10s | > 30s |
| 429 rate | > 5/min | > 20/min |
| Daily cost | > 80% budget | > 100% budget |
| Auth failures (401/403) | > 0 | > 0 (immediate) |

## Resources

- [API Status](https://status.anthropic.com)
- [Pricing](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/about-claude/pricing)
- [Rate Limits](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/api/rate-limits)

## Next Steps

For version upgrades, see `anth-upgrade-migration`.