Reference · How-to · ~12 min
How to deploy a RAG app (checklist)
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Pre-flight before customer traffic hits retrieval + generation. Treat index and model versions as a pair.
Pre-flight before customer traffic hits retrieval + generation. Treat index and model versions as a pair.
#Prerequisites
- Staging environment with production-like docs sample
- Golden questions with expected citations
- Rollback plan for both index and prompt/model
#Checklist
### Security & config
☐ API keys server-side only; no keys in the browser☐ Prompt injection posture documented for retrieved text☐ PII retention rules for logs and traces### Retrieval
☐ Embedding model version pinned (same at index + query)☐ Vector index version tagged in deploy notes☐ Chunking settings recorded (size, overlap, metadata filters)### Serving
☐ `/health` checks DB + model reachability☐ Timeouts and max tokens set☐ Rate limits and backpressure tested### Quality gate
☐ Golden questions pass in staging (faithfulness + citations)☐ Refusal behavior when evidence is missing☐ Rollback: prior index snapshot or model ID documented### After cutover
☐ Monitor groundedness / citation rate☐ Alert on retrieval empty-hit spikes☐ Owner on-call for quality regressions#Failure notes
Index rebuilt with a different embedding model than queriesPrompt updated without re-running golden tasksStale docs still dominating top-k**Try the lesson:** `deploy-rag-app` in Lane D · How-to: [Build a 5-doc RAG](/reference/how-to/build-5-doc-rag)