Deployment Best Practices
A condensed summary of the 25 most important deployment practices drawn from every page in this section.
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A condensed summary of the 25 most important deployment practices drawn from every page in this section.
Tag release commits: Every deploy maps to immutable git tag (Deploying Programs).
anchor test before deploy: Full matrix green on RC tag.
solana-verify in CI: Block release on hash mismatch (Verifiable Builds).
Archive every .so: releases/<version>/ retention for rollback.
dry-run deploy cost: solana program deploy --dry-run on target cluster.
Cluster sanity check: solana config get before CLI deploy.
Program ID sync: anchor keys sync matches declare_id!.
Devnet rehearsal: Same pipeline on devnet before mainnet.
Publish hash attestation: README + audit doc with {program_id, hash, commit}.
Post-deploy hash verify: get-program-hash equals CI artifact.
Multisig before TVL: Transfer upgrade authority to Squads (Governance).
No hot wallet mainnet authority: Deployer transfers authority immediately post-deploy.
Proposal template: Hash, tests, risk, rollback plan required for upgrades.
Timelock on governance: 24-72h for community reaction on upgrades.
Immutable only deliberately: --final after bake + audit (Immutable).
Rollback drill quarterly: Devnet bad deploy + revert exercise.
Incident runbook: Dump, rollback, verify, communicate (Rollbacks).
Close stale buffers: Reclaim rent after deploy.
Pin Agave 4.1.1 toolchain: Build matches validator BPF loader.
Document upgrade authority: Public program show authority matches docs.
No config edits in deploy scripts: Keep keys in secret manager.
Separate devnet/mainnet keypairs: Prevent wrong-cluster fat-finger.
Monitor upgrade slots: Alert on unexpected program data changes.
State migration plan: Breaking layouts ship migration ix, not blind upgrade.
Audit diff scope: Provide commit range since last audited tag for upgrades.
Tests pass, verify hash, devnet smoke, multisig authority, post-deploy hash check, public attestation.
After extended bake, audits, and governance vote - not day one.
Deploying unverified artifact with hot wallet upgrade authority on production TVL.
Stack versions: This page was written for Agave 4.1.1, Solana CLI 3.0.10, Anchor 0.32.1, anchor-lang 0.32.1, Rust 1.91.1, @solana/kit 7.0.0, Surfpool 0.12.0, and LiteSVM 0.6.x.
Reviewed by Chris St. John·Last updated Jul 16, 2026