Staging Environment Validation

Staging is your last checkpoint before production. Claude Code can automate staging validation by running a comprehensive checklist after each staging deployment: API health checks, smoke tests, visual regression comparisons, and performance benchmarks. The validation is not a replacement for QA — it is a pre-QA filter that catches the obvious failures before a human spends time testing.

The staging validation workflow integrates with your deployment pipeline. After the staging deployment step succeeds, a Claude Code step runs that executes the validation checklist and posts the results as a PR comment or Slack message. Green checks mean "ready for QA." Red checks mean "fix before QA touches it." This filter catches the deployment that broke the login page, the API version mismatch, and the missing environment variable — all before QA wastes a cycle discovering and reporting them.

## Staging Validation Checklist
After staging deploy, verify:
1. Health endpoint returns 200: `curl -s $STAGING_URL/health`
2. Auth flow works: login, token refresh, logout
3. Critical API endpoints return valid data (not 500/404)
4. Static assets load (JS, CSS, images)
5. Database migrations applied: version matches expected