Production Checklist

Security

- ✅ Use Helmet - ✅ Validate all input - ✅ Rate limiting - ✅ HTTPS only - ✅ Hash passwords with bcrypt - ✅ Environment variables for secrets

Performance

- ✅ Enable compression - ✅ Cache with Redis - ✅ Database indexes - ✅ Use lean() for reads - ✅ Parallel operations with Promise.all() - ✅ Clustering with PM2

Reliability

- ✅ Error handling - ✅ Graceful shutdown - ✅ Health checks - ✅ Logging with Winston - ✅ Monitoring - ✅ Auto-restart with PM2

Deployment

- ✅ PM2 for process management - ✅ Nginx reverse proxy - ✅ SSL with Let's Encrypt - ✅ CI/CD pipeline - ✅ Environment setup - ✅ Backup strategy

Testing

- ✅ Unit tests - ✅ API tests - ✅ Integration tests - ✅ 80% code coverage - ✅ Run tests in CI/CD

Key Takeaway

Production-ready means secure, fast, reliable, and monitored. Use this checklist before deployment. Test thoroughly. Monitor continuously.