Container Images That Actually Cache
Order Dockerfile steps from least-changing to most-changing. COPY package.json package-lock.json ./ and RUN npm ci belong above COPY . . so deps are cached across most builds.Use m…
Read article →GitHub Actions Caching Strategy
Cache by lock-file hash, restore by prefix. The cache key looks like npm-hashFiles('package-lock.json') with restore key npm-.For matrix builds, include the OS and Node version…
Read article →Blue-Green vs Canary Deploys
Blue-green spins up a parallel environment, runs smoke tests, then flips traffic. Rollback is fast — just flip back. Cost: double the infrastructure during the…
Read article →Postgres Backups That Actually Restore
A backup you have not tested is not a backup. Schedule monthly restores into a staging environment — automate the verification.For Postgres, pg_dump for logical…
Read article →Zero-Downtime Migrations in Practice
Three-phase pattern for schema changes: add the new column, dual-write to both, backfill in batches, switch reads, drop the old column. Each phase is independently…
Read article →Observability vs Monitoring
Monitoring tells you something is wrong (alerts, dashboards). Observability tells you why (traces, logs, structured events).The minimum useful set: structured logs with request IDs…
Read article →Choosing CI: Speed vs Cost
GitHub Actions is the default for open source and most small teams — free for public repos, generous tier for private. The hosted runners are…
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