A production checklist for apps built with AI tools
An app that works in preview can still fail its first real users. These are the checks that matter most after the first deploy, whatever tool built the app and wherever it runs.
Before real users arrive
- Access rules on every table. If your backend is Supabase, row-level security must be enabled and reviewed on each table that holds user data. A 2025 study found broken rules in a large share of the AI-built apps it examined (CVE-2025-48757).
- No secret keys in frontend code. Anything shipped to the browser can be read. Service keys, payment keys and admin tokens belong on the server.
- Production variables are set in production. A value that exists only in the preview environment breaks sign-in, payments or e-mail after deploy.
- Sign-in redirects point to your real domain. Authentication providers reject redirects to addresses they do not know.
- E-mail comes from your own domain, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, so confirmation and password e-mails reach the inbox.
- Webhooks are verified and safe to repeat. A payment provider may deliver the same event more than once.
Data
- Development and production use different databases. Testing against production data is how records disappear.
- Schema changes live in the repository as migrations, so they can be reviewed and applied in order.
- Backups cover files as well as the database, and a restore has been tested — see Backups you can restore.
Operation
- You can read logs after the fact — for builds and for the running app.
- Scheduled jobs are watched. A job that stops silently looks exactly like a job that has nothing to do.
- You know what happens at your plan limits: whether the provider bills more, slows the app down, or pauses it — see Predictable hosting costs.
Leaving
- Your domain is registered in your own account.
- You can export the database and the stored files in standard formats, without depending on the platform that runs them.
Next step
HostSpry reviews apps built with AI tools before they move to production. Tell us where yours lives today.