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Deployment handoff is an explicit product integration above the public sandbox API. It exports reviewed source into a durable StackShift project; it does not turn a sandbox into production, copy its VM, or restore a private orchestration path.

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What the review must show

Before confirmation, verify:
  • the exact sandbox, source root, and immutable source revision when Git is present;
  • detected application/build configuration and exclusion rules;
  • destination account, team, project, and environment;
  • the names of production variables that must be entered again;
  • files that will be included and excluded;
  • the handoff idempotency key and durable operation identity.
Do not submit while an editor holds uncommitted or unsynchronized changes. Resolve writer-lease and checksum conflicts first, then run the relevant build/tests in the sandbox.

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Mandatory exclusions

The export must exclude:
  • secret values, secret mount paths, volatile sidecar environment files, and real .env files;
  • managed service data, database dumps unless deliberately selected as reviewed source data, and generated credentials;
  • persistent or sidecar volume contents outside the chosen source root;
  • dependency directories, caches, temporary files, and build output;
  • browser screenshots, traces, videos, cookies, reports, and downloaded content;
  • sandbox runtime metadata, terminal tickets, port tokens, logs, and operation payloads;
  • Git history and repository credentials.
Review ignore rules as security controls. A filename not matching a default exclusion must still be removed if it contains a credential or customer data.

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Create production dependencies separately

Provision production databases, object storage, queues, domains, and other durable services through their production StackShift resources. Enter fresh least-privilege production variables through write-only controls. Never reuse DATABASE_URL, MYSQL_URL, REDIS_URL, proxy tokens, or file-delivered secrets from the sandbox.

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Submit and recover safely

The handoff mutation is asynchronous. Preserve its operation ID and idempotency key before navigating away. If the request times out or the browser reconnects, fetch the existing operation. Retry the same logical handoff with the same key; do not choose a new key unless you intentionally want another destination operation. Field validation should preserve reviewed input. Permission, plan, capacity, policy, build, and deployment failures are distinct and should show the request/support ID and remediation without displaying secret values.

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After completion

  1. Open the resulting project and verify its build operation and deployment logs.
  2. Confirm every production variable exists without revealing its value.
  3. Exercise the deployed health check and required routes.
  4. Verify production data services and network policy independently.
  5. Retain any required sandbox artifacts or snapshot.
  6. Sleep or destroy the sandbox according to its retention policy.
A successful source handoff does not certify the destination as production-ready. The project still requires its normal build, deployment, health, security, data, and rollback checks.

Security and persistence

Review secret and data boundaries.

Troubleshooting

Recover timed-out or failed operations.