Customer.io Production Checklist

Overview

Comprehensive go-live checklist for Customer.io integrations: credentials audit, integration quality review, email deliverability setup, monitoring configuration, smoke tests, and staged rollout plan.

Prerequisites

• Customer.io integration complete and tested in staging
• Production workspace credentials ready
• Sending domain configured and verified

Production Checklist

1. Credentials & Configuration

Item	Check	How to Verify
Production Site ID	Correct workspace	Settings > API & Webhook Credentials
Production Track API Key	Different from dev/staging	Compare with staging .env
Production App API Key	Set for transactional messages	Test with curl bearer auth
Region setting	Matches account region (US/EU)	Settings > Workspace Settings
Secrets storage	In secrets manager, not .env	Check deployment config
Key rotation schedule	Documented (90-day cycle)	Calendar reminder set

2. Integration Quality

// scripts/prod-audit.ts
import { TrackClient, RegionUS } from "customerio-node";

async function auditIntegration() {
  const checks: { name: string; pass: boolean; detail: string }[] = [];

  // Check 1: Credentials exist
  const siteId = process.env.CUSTOMERIO_SITE_ID;
  const trackKey = process.env.CUSTOMERIO_TRACK_API_KEY;
  const appKey = process.env.CUSTOMERIO_APP_API_KEY;
  checks.push({
    name: "Track credentials",
    pass: !!(siteId && trackKey),
    detail: siteId ? `Site ID: ${siteId.substring(0, 4)}...` : "MISSING",
  });
  checks.push({
    name: "App API credential",
    pass: !!appKey,
    detail: appKey ? "Set" : "MISSING (needed for transactional)",
  });

  // Check 2: API connectivity
  if (siteId && trackKey) {
    const cio = new TrackClient(siteId, trackKey, { region: RegionUS });
    try {
      await cio.identify("prod-audit-test", {
        email: "prod-audit@example.com",
      });
      await cio.suppress("prod-audit-test");
      checks.push({ name: "Track API", pass: true, detail: "Connected" });
    } catch (err: any) {
      checks.push({
        name: "Track API",
        pass: false,
        detail: `${err.statusCode}: ${err.message}`,
      });
    }
  }

  // Report
  console.log("\n=== Customer.io Production Audit ===\n");
  for (const check of checks) {
    const icon = check.pass ? "PASS" : "FAIL";
    console.log(`[${icon}] ${check.name}: ${check.detail}`);
  }
  const passed = checks.filter((c) => c.pass).length;
  console.log(`\nResult: ${passed}/${checks.length} passed`);
  return checks.every((c) => c.pass);
}

auditIntegration().then((ok) => process.exit(ok ? 0 : 1));

3. Email Deliverability

Item	Status	Dashboard Location
Sending domain verified	Required	Settings > Sending Domains
SPF record published	Required	DNS TXT record
DKIM record published	Required	DNS CNAME record
DMARC policy set	Recommended	DNS TXT record _dmarc.yourdomain.com
Return-Path configured	Recommended	Settings > Sending Domains
Unsubscribe link in all marketing emails	Required (CAN-SPAM)	Template editor
Physical address in marketing emails	Required (CAN-SPAM)	Template editor

4. Campaign Readiness

• All campaigns tested with test sends
• Liquid templates render correctly (preview with real data)
• Segment conditions verified with known test users
• Transactional templates have all required message_data fields
• Broadcast triggers tested end-to-end
• Unsubscribe flow tested (click unsubscribe link, verify suppression)

5. Monitoring & Alerting

// Set up these alerts in your monitoring system:
const ALERT_THRESHOLDS = {
  // API health
  api_error_rate: 0.01,       // Alert if > 1% of API calls fail
  api_p99_latency_ms: 5000,   // Alert if p99 > 5 seconds

  // Delivery health
  bounce_rate: 0.05,          // Alert if > 5% bounce rate
  complaint_rate: 0.001,      // Alert if > 0.1% spam complaints
  delivery_rate: 0.95,        // Alert if < 95% delivery rate

  // Operational health
  queue_depth: 10000,         // Alert if event queue > 10K pending
  webhook_error_rate: 0.05,   // Alert if > 5% webhook processing failures
};

6. Smoke Test Script

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "=== Customer.io Production Smoke Test ==="

# Test 1: Track API connectivity
TRACK_STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -u "${CUSTOMERIO_SITE_ID}:${CUSTOMERIO_TRACK_API_KEY}" \
  -X PUT "https://track.customer.io/api/v1/customers/smoke-test-$(date +%s)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"smoke@example.com","_smoke_test":true}')

if [ "$TRACK_STATUS" = "200" ]; then
  echo "[PASS] Track API: HTTP 200"
else
  echo "[FAIL] Track API: HTTP ${TRACK_STATUS}"
  exit 1
fi

# Test 2: App API connectivity
APP_STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${CUSTOMERIO_APP_API_KEY}" \
  "https://api.customer.io/v1/campaigns")

if [ "$APP_STATUS" = "200" ]; then
  echo "[PASS] App API: HTTP 200"
else
  echo "[FAIL] App API: HTTP ${APP_STATUS}"
  exit 1
fi

echo ""
echo "All smoke tests passed"

7. Staged Rollout Plan

Time	Action	Rollback Trigger
T-24h	Final staging test pass	Any test failure
T-12h	Production smoke tests	Smoke test failure
T-1h	Enable for internal team (feature flag)	Error reports
T-0	Enable for 10% of users	Error rate > 1%
T+1h	Increase to 50%	Error rate > 1% or bounce rate > 5%
T+2h	100% traffic	Same thresholds
T+24h	Post-launch review	N/A

// Feature flag integration for staged rollout
function shouldUseCio(userId: string, rolloutPercent: number): boolean {
  // Deterministic — same user always gets same result
  const hash = createHash("md5").update(userId).digest("hex");
  const bucket = parseInt(hash.substring(0, 8), 16) % 100;
  return bucket < rolloutPercent;
}

Rollback Procedure

1. Set feature flag to 0% (immediate — no deploy needed)
2. Pause all active campaigns in Customer.io dashboard
3. Investigate logs and error reports
4. Fix issue, test in staging
5. Resume staged rollout from 10%

Error Handling

Issue	Solution
Smoke test fails in production	Verify production credentials (different from staging)
High bounce rate post-launch	Check sending domain verification, review bounce logs
Spam complaints spike	Review email content, verify unsubscribe links work
Feature flag not working	Check feature flag service connectivity

Resources

• Customer.io Email Deliverability
• Sending Domain Setup
• Campaign Best Practices

Next Steps

After production launch, proceed to customerio-upgrade-migration for SDK maintenance.