The Vibe Coder's Production Launch Checklist (2026)

Vibe coding works. You describe what you want, the AI builds it, and you iterate until it feels right. Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit, whatever your tool of choice, the result is the same: a working app built in hours instead of weeks.

The problem isn't the building. The problem is the gap between "it works on my screen" and "it works reliably for real users with real data and real money involved."

This checklist bridges that gap. It's tool-agnostic, organized by category, and ordered by priority within each section. Work through it top to bottom before you deploy. Or at minimum, work through the Critical items.

Security

Critical

• Authentication on every protected route. Every page and API endpoint that shows or modifies user data must verify the user is logged in. Test by accessing each route without a session.

• Authorization on every data access. Being logged in isn't enough. Users should only access their own data. Verify with two test accounts: can User A see User B's data?

// Test this: log in as User A, then try to access User B's resource
const res = await fetch('/api/projects/user-b-project-id');
// This should return 403, not the project data

• No secrets in client-side code. Run this search on your codebase:

grep -rn "sk_live\|sk_test\|secret_key\|service_role\|private_key\|password" \
  src/ app/ components/ lib/ --include="*.ts" --include="*.tsx" --include="*.js" --include="*.jsx"

• Database access is restricted. If using Supabase, RLS is enabled on every table. If using a direct database connection, it's only accessed from server-side code.

• Sensitive operations are server-side. Payments, admin actions, data deletion, email sending — none of these should happen in client-side code.

Important

• Rate limiting on public endpoints. At minimum: login (5/min), signup (3/min), password reset (3/hour), any endpoint that sends email (5/hour).

• Input validation on every form. Use a schema validation library like Zod:

const ContactSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  message: z.string().min(1).max(5000),
});

• CORS restricted to your domains. No Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on authenticated endpoints.

• Security headers configured. HSTS, X-Frame-Options DENY, X-Content-Type-Options nosniff, Referrer-Policy.

• File uploads validated for type and size if applicable.

Error Handling

Critical

• Error boundary at app root. Prevents the entire app from crashing to a white screen on a rendering error.

• Every API call has error handling. No unhandled promise rejections. Every fetch or database call is in a try/catch.

• User-friendly error messages. Users never see raw error objects, stack traces, or technical codes. They see "Something went wrong. Please try again."

Important

• Loading states on all async operations. Every button that triggers an API call should show a loading state and be disabled while processing.

• Empty states handled. Every list, table, and data display has a meaningful empty state, not a blank space.

• Form submission prevents double-submit. Disable the submit button while the request is in flight.

• Network failure handling. The app should degrade gracefully when the API is unreachable, not crash.

• Toast/notification system for feedback. Users should know when actions succeed or fail.

Testing

Critical

• Build succeeds without ignoreBuildErrors. Remove these flags from your config:

// DELETE THESE from next.config.js/ts
typescript: { ignoreBuildErrors: true }
eslint: { ignoreDuringBuilds: true }

• Auth flow works end-to-end. Manually test: signup, login, logout, password reset, session expiry.

• Core user journey works. Whatever the main thing your app does, test it thoroughly with edge cases.

Important

• Payment flow tested with Stripe test mode (if applicable). Complete checkout, verify webhook delivery, test cancellation.

• Tests exist for business-critical logic. At minimum, test your core API routes and any financial calculations.

• Mobile testing. Open your app on an actual phone. Not just browser responsive mode, an actual phone.

Deploy Configuration

Critical

• All environment variables are set in your hosting provider. Missing env vars are the most common cause of "works locally, broken in production."

• Environment variables are documented. Create a .env.example with every required variable (values redacted):

# .env.example
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=https://your-project.supabase.co
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your-anon-key
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=your-service-role-key
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_...
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...

• Production build works. Run npm run build locally and fix any errors before deploying.

• Database schema is reproducible. Migration files or a schema dump exists. You could recreate the database from scratch if needed.

Important

• Custom domain configured with SSL.

• DNS and redirects working. www redirects to non-www (or vice versa). HTTP redirects to HTTPS.

• Favicon and app icon set. Missing favicons make your app look unfinished.

• 404 page exists. A custom 404 is better than your framework's default error page.

Performance

Important

• No N+1 queries. Loading a list of 50 items shouldn't make 50 separate database queries.

• Images are optimized. Use Next.js Image, Cloudinary, or similar. Don't serve 4MB PNGs.

• Bundle size is reasonable. JavaScript bundle under 500KB for most apps. Check what's contributing to size.

• Large lists are paginated. Don't load thousands of records at once.

• Fonts are loaded efficiently. Use next/font or preload critical fonts.

SEO and Meta Tags

Important (for public-facing apps)

• Unique title and description on every page. Not just the homepage.

• Open Graph tags for social sharing. Test with Twitter Card Validator and LinkedIn Post Inspector.

• Sitemap generated and submitted to Google Search Console.

• robots.txt configured. Public pages crawlable, dashboard/admin routes blocked.

• Canonical URLs set to prevent duplicate content issues.

Monitoring

Critical

• Error tracking configured. Sentry, LogRocket, or equivalent. You need to know when production breaks.

Important

• Analytics configured. You need to know if people are using your app and where they drop off.

• Uptime monitoring set up. Get alerted when your app goes down.

• Log aggregation accessible. You should be able to view production logs without SSHing into a server.

The Count

If you went through every item, you just checked roughly 50 things. That's a lot. And this is exactly why AI-built apps ship with gaps: the checklist is comprehensive and tedious, and the pressure to launch is high.

Two options:

Option A: Work through this list manually. It takes a few hours, but it's thorough and you'll learn a lot about your app's weak spots in the process.

Option B: Automate it.

You vibed the build. Now finish the launch.