homelab-copilot/docs/architecture/pre-merge-checklist.md

Manual pre-merge checklist

Run through this, honestly, before merging any PR to main — for now, this is the only gate between your changes and (eventually) a live Coolify deploy. See ADR-003 for why there's no CI yet.

Before merging

• It runs. If the change touches the dev environment, docker compose -f infrastructure/docker/docker-compose.yml -f infrastructure/docker/docker-compose.dev.yml up still succeeds with no errors.
• Docs updated in the same PR. Any behavior, architecture, or decision change is reflected in the relevant doc (docs/architecture/, docs/roadmap/, agent docs, etc.) — not left as a follow-up.
• No secrets committed. Double-check .env, config files, and diffs for credentials, tokens, or API keys. .env should never be tracked — only .env.example.
• ADR written, if applicable. Any non-trivial technical decision (new dependency, new architectural pattern, reversing a prior ADR) gets its own numbered ADR in docs/architecture/adr/.
• CHANGELOG.md updated under [Unreleased].
• Manually tested end-to-end. Describe in the PR description exactly what you did to verify the change works, not just that it compiles.
• docker-compose.prod.yml still valid, if touched: docker compose -f infrastructure/docker/docker-compose.yml -f infrastructure/docker/docker-compose.prod.yml config succeeds with no errors.
• Commit messages follow Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, docs:, chore:, refactor:, test:).

Notes

This checklist exists because merges to main carry more weight than usual here — once Coolify is connected (not yet, per ADR-003), a merge is a production deploy with nothing automated in between. If this checklist starts feeling like a rubber stamp, that's the signal to bring in real CI rather than to skip steps.