Widget Deployment: CDN, Versioning & Rollback Strategies

Introduction: Why Proper Deployment Prevents ChatGPT Widget Downtime

When your ChatGPT widget serves thousands of conversations daily, deployment failures aren't just inconvenient—they're catastrophic. A broken widget deployment can cascade through the entire ChatGPT App Store, affecting user trust, app ratings, and ultimately your business revenue. Unlike traditional web applications where you control the hosting environment, ChatGPT widgets are distributed across OpenAI's infrastructure, making deployment complexity exponentially higher.

Production-grade widget deployment requires a sophisticated approach that balances speed with safety. You need CDN distribution for global performance, semantic versioning for dependency management, feature flags for gradual rollouts, and instant rollback capabilities for when things go wrong. The stakes are high: a single deployment bug can break widgets for millions of ChatGPT users simultaneously.

This comprehensive guide covers the entire deployment lifecycle—from CDN configuration and versioning strategies to A/B testing frameworks and automated rollback systems. You'll learn how to build a deployment pipeline that achieves 99.99% uptime while maintaining the agility to ship features daily. Whether you're deploying your first widget or scaling to enterprise production, these battle-tested strategies will prevent downtime and ensure your ChatGPT apps stay online.

CDN Distribution: CloudFlare, AWS CloudFront & Caching Strategies

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are essential for ChatGPT widget deployment because they solve three critical challenges: global latency, bandwidth costs, and reliability. When a user in Tokyo starts a ChatGPT conversation, your widget should load in under 200ms—impossible without edge caching. CDN distribution ensures your widget code is cached at data centers worldwide, reducing Time To First Byte (TTFB) from seconds to milliseconds.

Choosing the Right CDN Provider

CloudFlare excels for budget-conscious deployments with excellent free tier features including unlimited bandwidth, automatic HTTPS, and DDoS protection. Their Workers platform allows you to run serverless edge functions for advanced deployment logic like feature flag evaluation at the CDN layer. CloudFlare's purge API supports instant cache invalidation across their global network (200+ cities), making zero-downtime deployments achievable.

AWS CloudFront is the enterprise choice, offering tight integration with S3 for widget storage, Lambda@Edge for complex routing logic, and AWS Shield for advanced DDoS mitigation. CloudFront's geo-restriction features are critical for compliance-sensitive industries like healthcare or finance where widget access must be region-locked. The invalidation limits (1,000 free per month) require careful batching, but the sub-10ms global latency is unmatched.

Optimal Caching Configuration

Here's a production-ready CDN deployment script that handles versioned widget uploads, cache invalidation, and rollback preparation:

#!/bin/bash
# cdn-deploy.sh - Production widget CDN deployment
# Usage: ./cdn-deploy.sh <version> <environment>

set -euo pipefail

VERSION=${1:-$(git describe --tags --always)}
ENVIRONMENT=${2:-production}
WIDGET_BUCKET="s3://widgets.makeaihq.com"
CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID="E1A2B3C4D5E6F7"
CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID="abc123def456"

echo "🚀 Deploying widget version ${VERSION} to ${ENVIRONMENT}..."

# Step 1: Build optimized widget bundle
echo "📦 Building production bundle..."
npm run build --mode=production
npm run minify

# Step 2: Upload to S3 with versioned path (immutable)
echo "☁️ Uploading to S3 (versioned path)..."
aws s3 sync ./dist/ "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/${VERSION}/" \
  --cache-control "public, max-age=31536000, immutable" \
  --metadata-directive REPLACE \
  --exclude "*.map" \
  --exclude "*.test.js"

# Step 3: Upload to latest/ directory with short cache
echo "🔄 Updating latest pointer..."
aws s3 sync ./dist/ "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/latest/" \
  --cache-control "public, max-age=300, must-revalidate" \
  --metadata-directive REPLACE \
  --exclude "*.map"

# Step 4: Invalidate CloudFront cache for /latest/* only
echo "🧹 Invalidating CloudFront cache..."
aws cloudfront create-invalidation \
  --distribution-id "${CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID}" \
  --paths "/latest/*" \
  --query 'Invalidation.Id' \
  --output text

# Step 5: Purge CloudFlare cache (if using dual-CDN setup)
if [[ -n "${CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID}" ]]; then
  echo "🌐 Purging CloudFlare cache..."
  curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/${CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID}/purge_cache" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data '{"files":["https://widgets.makeaihq.com/latest/widget.js"]}'
fi

# Step 6: Update version manifest for rollback tracking
echo "📝 Updating version manifest..."
cat > version-manifest.json <<EOF
{
  "version": "${VERSION}",
  "timestamp": "$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")",
  "environment": "${ENVIRONMENT}",
  "s3_path": "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/${VERSION}/",
  "cloudfront_url": "https://d1a2b3c4d5e6f7.cloudfront.net/${VERSION}/widget.js",
  "rollback_available": true
}
EOF

aws s3 cp version-manifest.json "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/manifests/${VERSION}.json" \
  --cache-control "no-cache"

# Step 7: Wait for CloudFront invalidation to complete
echo "⏳ Waiting for cache invalidation..."
aws cloudfront wait invalidation-completed \
  --distribution-id "${CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID}" \
  --id "$(aws cloudfront list-invalidations --distribution-id ${CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID} --query 'InvalidationList.Items[0].Id' --output text)"

# Step 8: Smoke test the deployed widget
echo "🧪 Running smoke tests..."
WIDGET_URL="https://d1a2b3c4d5e6f7.cloudfront.net/latest/widget.js"
HTTP_CODE=$(curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" "${WIDGET_URL}")

if [[ "${HTTP_CODE}" -ne 200 ]]; then
  echo "❌ Deployment failed! Widget returned HTTP ${HTTP_CODE}"
  echo "🔙 Consider rollback: ./rollback.sh $(cat previous-version.txt)"
  exit 1
fi

# Step 9: Verify widget integrity
EXPECTED_HASH=$(sha256sum ./dist/widget.js | cut -d' ' -f1)
DEPLOYED_HASH=$(curl -s "${WIDGET_URL}" | sha256sum | cut -d' ' -f1)

if [[ "${EXPECTED_HASH}" != "${DEPLOYED_HASH}" ]]; then
  echo "⚠️ WARNING: Widget hash mismatch! CDN may still be serving old version."
  echo "Expected: ${EXPECTED_HASH}"
  echo "Got: ${DEPLOYED_HASH}"
  exit 1
fi

# Step 10: Save current version for rollback
echo "${VERSION}" > previous-version.txt

echo "✅ Deployment complete! Widget version ${VERSION} is live."
echo "📊 Monitor at: https://widgets.makeaihq.com/health/${VERSION}"
echo "🔙 Rollback: ./rollback.sh ${VERSION}"

Cache-Control Headers Strategy

The script uses two different caching strategies:

1. Versioned paths (/v1.2.3/widget.js): max-age=31536000, immutable (1 year) because versioned URLs never change content—safe to cache forever.
2. Latest path (/latest/widget.js): max-age=300, must-revalidate (5 minutes) to balance freshness with CDN hit rates.

This dual-path approach allows instant deployments (update /latest/) while maintaining long-term cacheable versioned URLs for optimal performance. ChatGPT apps using versioned URLs (https://widgets.makeaihq.com/v1.2.3/widget.js) in their MCP tool responses will experience zero cache churn.

Versioning Strategy: Semantic Versioning & Immutable Deploys

Semantic versioning (SemVer) is the foundation of safe widget deployments. The MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format (e.g., 2.4.7) communicates breaking changes, new features, and bug fixes through version numbers alone. This is critical for ChatGPT widgets where automated systems need to make deployment decisions without human intervention.

SemVer Rules for ChatGPT Widgets

• MAJOR (2.x.x → 3.0.0): Breaking changes to widget API contract (e.g., changing window.openai.setWidgetState() signature)
• MINOR (2.4.x → 2.5.0): New features that are backward compatible (e.g., adding new event handlers)
• PATCH (2.4.7 → 2.4.8): Bug fixes, performance improvements, no API changes

Here's a production TypeScript version manager that enforces SemVer rules and prevents accidental breaking changes:

// version-manager.ts - Semantic versioning enforcement
import * as fs from 'fs';
import * as path from 'path';
import { execSync } from 'child_process';

interface VersionMetadata {
  version: string;
  major: number;
  minor: number;
  patch: number;
  timestamp: string;
  gitCommit: string;
  breakingChanges: string[];
  features: string[];
  bugfixes: string[];
}

class VersionManager {
  private packagePath: string;
  private changelogPath: string;

  constructor(projectRoot: string = process.cwd()) {
    this.packagePath = path.join(projectRoot, 'package.json');
    this.changelogPath = path.join(projectRoot, 'CHANGELOG.md');
  }

  /**
   * Get current version from package.json
   */
  getCurrentVersion(): VersionMetadata {
    const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(this.packagePath, 'utf-8'));
    const [major, minor, patch] = pkg.version.split('.').map(Number);

    return {
      version: pkg.version,
      major,
      minor,
      patch,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      gitCommit: this.getGitCommit(),
      breakingChanges: [],
      features: [],
      bugfixes: []
    };
  }

  /**
   * Bump version based on change type
   */
  bump(type: 'major' | 'minor' | 'patch', changelog: string[]): VersionMetadata {
    const current = this.getCurrentVersion();
    let newMajor = current.major;
    let newMinor = current.minor;
    let newPatch = current.patch;

    switch (type) {
      case 'major':
        newMajor++;
        newMinor = 0;
        newPatch = 0;
        break;
      case 'minor':
        newMinor++;
        newPatch = 0;
        break;
      case 'patch':
        newPatch++;
        break;
    }

    const newVersion = `${newMajor}.${newMinor}.${newPatch}`;

    // Update package.json
    const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(this.packagePath, 'utf-8'));
    pkg.version = newVersion;
    fs.writeFileSync(this.packagePath, JSON.stringify(pkg, null, 2) + '\n');

    // Update CHANGELOG.md
    this.updateChangelog(newVersion, changelog, type);

    // Create git tag
    this.createGitTag(newVersion);

    return {
      version: newVersion,
      major: newMajor,
      minor: newMinor,
      patch: newPatch,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      gitCommit: this.getGitCommit(),
      breakingChanges: type === 'major' ? changelog : [],
      features: type === 'minor' ? changelog : [],
      bugfixes: type === 'patch' ? changelog : []
    };
  }

  /**
   * Validate version compatibility with deployed widgets
   */
  validateCompatibility(targetVersion: string): {
    compatible: boolean;
    warnings: string[];
  } {
    const current = this.getCurrentVersion();
    const [targetMajor] = targetVersion.split('.').map(Number);

    const warnings: string[] = [];

    if (targetMajor !== current.major) {
      warnings.push(
        `⚠️ MAJOR version change (${current.major}.x.x → ${targetMajor}.x.x) ` +
        `will BREAK existing ChatGPT apps using versioned URLs. ` +
        `Ensure migration guide is published.`
      );
    }

    // Check for deprecated features
    const deprecations = this.scanForDeprecations();
    if (deprecations.length > 0) {
      warnings.push(
        `Found ${deprecations.length} deprecated features: ${deprecations.join(', ')}`
      );
    }

    return {
      compatible: targetMajor === current.major,
      warnings
    };
  }

  /**
   * Generate immutable deployment artifact
   */
  createImmutableArtifact(version: string): string {
    const artifactDir = path.join(process.cwd(), 'artifacts', version);
    fs.mkdirSync(artifactDir, { recursive: true });

    // Copy build output
    execSync(`cp -R dist/* ${artifactDir}/`);

    // Generate artifact manifest
    const manifest = {
      version,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      gitCommit: this.getGitCommit(),
      files: this.listFiles(artifactDir),
      checksums: this.generateChecksums(artifactDir)
    };

    fs.writeFileSync(
      path.join(artifactDir, 'manifest.json'),
      JSON.stringify(manifest, null, 2)
    );

    // Create tarball for archival
    execSync(`tar -czf artifacts/${version}.tar.gz -C artifacts/${version} .`);

    return artifactDir;
  }

  private getGitCommit(): string {
    try {
      return execSync('git rev-parse HEAD').toString().trim();
    } catch {
      return 'unknown';
    }
  }

  private updateChangelog(version: string, changes: string[], type: string): void {
    const date = new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0];
    const header = `## [${version}] - ${date}\n\n`;

    let changeSection = '';
    if (type === 'major') {
      changeSection = `### ⚠️ BREAKING CHANGES\n${changes.map(c => `- ${c}`).join('\n')}\n\n`;
    } else if (type === 'minor') {
      changeSection = `### ✨ Features\n${changes.map(c => `- ${c}`).join('\n')}\n\n`;
    } else {
      changeSection = `### 🐛 Bug Fixes\n${changes.map(c => `- ${c}`).join('\n')}\n\n`;
    }

    const currentChangelog = fs.existsSync(this.changelogPath)
      ? fs.readFileSync(this.changelogPath, 'utf-8')
      : '# Changelog\n\n';

    const newChangelog = currentChangelog.replace(
      '# Changelog\n\n',
      `# Changelog\n\n${header}${changeSection}`
    );

    fs.writeFileSync(this.changelogPath, newChangelog);
  }

  private createGitTag(version: string): void {
    try {
      execSync(`git tag -a v${version} -m "Release version ${version}"`);
      console.log(`✅ Created git tag: v${version}`);
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(`❌ Failed to create git tag: ${error}`);
    }
  }

  private scanForDeprecations(): string[] {
    // Scan codebase for @deprecated annotations
    try {
      const result = execSync(
        'grep -r "@deprecated" src/ --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" || true'
      ).toString();

      return result
        .split('\n')
        .filter(line => line.includes('@deprecated'))
        .map(line => line.split('@deprecated')[1]?.trim() || '')
        .filter(Boolean);
    } catch {
      return [];
    }
  }

  private listFiles(dir: string): string[] {
    const files: string[] = [];
    const items = fs.readdirSync(dir);

    for (const item of items) {
      const fullPath = path.join(dir, item);
      const stat = fs.statSync(fullPath);

      if (stat.isDirectory()) {
        files.push(...this.listFiles(fullPath));
      } else {
        files.push(fullPath);
      }
    }

    return files;
  }

  private generateChecksums(dir: string): Record<string, string> {
    const checksums: Record<string, string> = {};
    const files = this.listFiles(dir);

    for (const file of files) {
      const hash = execSync(`sha256sum "${file}" | cut -d' ' -f1`)
        .toString()
        .trim();
      checksums[path.relative(dir, file)] = hash;
    }

    return checksums;
  }
}

// CLI Usage
if (require.main === module) {
  const manager = new VersionManager();
  const args = process.argv.slice(2);

  if (args[0] === 'bump') {
    const type = args[1] as 'major' | 'minor' | 'patch';
    const changelog = args.slice(2);

    if (!['major', 'minor', 'patch'].includes(type)) {
      console.error('❌ Usage: ts-node version-manager.ts bump <major|minor|patch> <changelog>');
      process.exit(1);
    }

    const newVersion = manager.bump(type, changelog);
    console.log(`✅ Bumped to version ${newVersion.version}`);

    const compat = manager.validateCompatibility(newVersion.version);
    if (compat.warnings.length > 0) {
      console.warn('\n⚠️ Compatibility warnings:');
      compat.warnings.forEach(w => console.warn(w));
    }
  } else if (args[0] === 'artifact') {
    const version = args[1] || manager.getCurrentVersion().version;
    const artifactPath = manager.createImmutableArtifact(version);
    console.log(`📦 Created immutable artifact: ${artifactPath}`);
  } else {
    const current = manager.getCurrentVersion();
    console.log(`Current version: ${current.version}`);
    console.log(`Git commit: ${current.gitCommit}`);
  }
}

This version manager enforces immutable deployments by creating timestamped artifacts that can never be modified—critical for rollback reliability.

A/B Testing & Feature Flags: Gradual Rollout Framework

Feature flags enable risk-free deployments by decoupling code deployment from feature activation. You can deploy code to production while keeping features disabled, then gradually enable them for 1%, 5%, 25%, 50%, and finally 100% of users. This phased rollout catches bugs before they impact your entire user base.

Feature Flag Service Implementation

Here's a production-ready feature flag service with percentage-based rollouts and user targeting:

// feature-flags.ts - Production feature flag service
import crypto from 'crypto';

interface FeatureFlag {
  key: string;
  enabled: boolean;
  rolloutPercentage: number;
  targetUsers?: string[];
  targetEnvironments?: string[];
  startDate?: Date;
  endDate?: Date;
}

interface FlagEvaluationContext {
  userId?: string;
  environment: string;
  timestamp: Date;
  customAttributes?: Record<string, any>;
}

class FeatureFlagService {
  private flags: Map<string, FeatureFlag> = new Map();
  private flagChangeListeners: Map<string, ((enabled: boolean) => void)[]> = new Map();

  constructor(initialFlags: FeatureFlag[] = []) {
    initialFlags.forEach(flag => this.flags.set(flag.key, flag));
  }

  /**
   * Register a feature flag
   */
  register(flag: FeatureFlag): void {
    this.flags.set(flag.key, flag);
    console.log(`🚩 Registered feature flag: ${flag.key} (${flag.rolloutPercentage}% rollout)`);
  }

  /**
   * Evaluate whether a feature is enabled for given context
   */
  isEnabled(flagKey: string, context: FlagEvaluationContext): boolean {
    const flag = this.flags.get(flagKey);

    if (!flag) {
      console.warn(`⚠️ Unknown feature flag: ${flagKey}`);
      return false;
    }

    // Check if flag is globally disabled
    if (!flag.enabled) {
      return false;
    }

    // Check environment targeting
    if (flag.targetEnvironments && !flag.targetEnvironments.includes(context.environment)) {
      return false;
    }

    // Check date range
    if (flag.startDate && context.timestamp < flag.startDate) {
      return false;
    }
    if (flag.endDate && context.timestamp > flag.endDate) {
      return false;
    }

    // Check user targeting (explicit users always get flag)
    if (context.userId && flag.targetUsers?.includes(context.userId)) {
      return true;
    }

    // Percentage-based rollout using consistent hashing
    if (context.userId) {
      const userHash = this.hashUserId(context.userId, flagKey);
      const userPercentile = (userHash % 100) + 1; // 1-100
      return userPercentile <= flag.rolloutPercentage;
    }

    // Fallback: random evaluation (for anonymous users)
    return Math.random() * 100 < flag.rolloutPercentage;
  }

  /**
   * Get flag value with type safety
   */
  getValue<T>(flagKey: string, defaultValue: T, context: FlagEvaluationContext): T {
    const enabled = this.isEnabled(flagKey, context);
    return enabled ? defaultValue : (false as unknown as T);
  }

  /**
   * Update rollout percentage (for gradual rollouts)
   */
  updateRollout(flagKey: string, percentage: number): void {
    const flag = this.flags.get(flagKey);
    if (!flag) {
      throw new Error(`Feature flag not found: ${flagKey}`);
    }

    const oldPercentage = flag.rolloutPercentage;
    flag.rolloutPercentage = Math.max(0, Math.min(100, percentage));

    console.log(`📊 Updated ${flagKey} rollout: ${oldPercentage}% → ${percentage}%`);
    this.notifyListeners(flagKey, flag.enabled);
  }

  /**
   * Enable/disable flag entirely
   */
  toggle(flagKey: string, enabled: boolean): void {
    const flag = this.flags.get(flagKey);
    if (!flag) {
      throw new Error(`Feature flag not found: ${flagKey}`);
    }

    flag.enabled = enabled;
    console.log(`🔄 Toggled ${flagKey}: ${enabled ? 'ON' : 'OFF'}`);
    this.notifyListeners(flagKey, enabled);
  }

  /**
   * Subscribe to flag changes
   */
  onChange(flagKey: string, callback: (enabled: boolean) => void): () => void {
    if (!this.flagChangeListeners.has(flagKey)) {
      this.flagChangeListeners.set(flagKey, []);
    }
    this.flagChangeListeners.get(flagKey)!.push(callback);

    // Return unsubscribe function
    return () => {
      const listeners = this.flagChangeListeners.get(flagKey) || [];
      const index = listeners.indexOf(callback);
      if (index > -1) {
        listeners.splice(index, 1);
      }
    };
  }

  /**
   * Get all flags for debugging
   */
  getAllFlags(): FeatureFlag[] {
    return Array.from(this.flags.values());
  }

  private hashUserId(userId: string, salt: string): number {
    const hash = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(userId + salt).digest('hex');
    return parseInt(hash.substring(0, 8), 16);
  }

  private notifyListeners(flagKey: string, enabled: boolean): void {
    const listeners = this.flagChangeListeners.get(flagKey) || [];
    listeners.forEach(callback => callback(enabled));
  }
}

// Widget-specific feature flags
export const widgetFlags = new FeatureFlagService([
  {
    key: 'widget.new-renderer',
    enabled: true,
    rolloutPercentage: 10, // Start with 10% of users
    targetEnvironments: ['production']
  },
  {
    key: 'widget.optimized-caching',
    enabled: true,
    rolloutPercentage: 50,
    targetEnvironments: ['staging', 'production']
  },
  {
    key: 'widget.experimental-animations',
    enabled: true,
    rolloutPercentage: 5,
    targetUsers: ['user-123', 'user-456'], // Beta testers
    targetEnvironments: ['production']
  }
]);

// Usage in widget code
export function renderWidget(context: FlagEvaluationContext) {
  const useNewRenderer = widgetFlags.isEnabled('widget.new-renderer', context);

  if (useNewRenderer) {
    return renderWithOptimizedEngine();
  } else {
    return renderWithLegacyEngine();
  }
}

Gradual Rollout Strategy

The best practice rollout schedule for ChatGPT widgets:

• Day 1: 1% rollout (internal team + beta users)
• Day 2: 5% rollout (early adopters)
• Day 3: 25% rollout (monitor error rates)
• Day 5: 50% rollout (validate performance at scale)
• Day 7: 100% rollout (full deployment)

Monitor error rates at each stage—if error rate increases by >5%, pause rollout and investigate.

Rollback Strategies: Instant Rollback & Canary Releases

Even with feature flags and gradual rollouts, you need instant rollback capabilities. A catastrophic widget bug (infinite loop, memory leak, XSS vulnerability) requires reverting to the previous version within seconds, not minutes.

Automated Rollback Script

#!/bin/bash
# rollback.sh - Instant widget rollback to previous version
# Usage: ./rollback.sh <target-version>

set -euo pipefail

TARGET_VERSION=${1}
WIDGET_BUCKET="s3://widgets.makeaihq.com"
CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID="E1A2B3C4D5E6F7"

echo "🔙 Rolling back to version ${TARGET_VERSION}..."

# Step 1: Validate target version exists
if ! aws s3 ls "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/${TARGET_VERSION}/" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "❌ Version ${TARGET_VERSION} not found in S3!"
  echo "Available versions:"
  aws s3 ls "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/" | grep "PRE v" | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/\///'
  exit 1
fi

# Step 2: Update /latest/ to point to target version
echo "⏪ Updating /latest/ pointer to ${TARGET_VERSION}..."
aws s3 sync "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/${TARGET_VERSION}/" "${WIDGET_BUCKET}/latest/" \
  --cache-control "public, max-age=300, must-revalidate" \
  --metadata-directive REPLACE \
  --delete

# Step 3: Invalidate CloudFront immediately
echo "🧹 Invalidating CloudFront cache (priority: urgent)..."
INVALIDATION_ID=$(aws cloudfront create-invalidation \
  --distribution-id "${CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID}" \
  --paths "/latest/*" \
  --query 'Invalidation.Id' \
  --output text)

echo "⏳ Waiting for invalidation ${INVALIDATION_ID}..."
aws cloudfront wait invalidation-completed \
  --distribution-id "${CLOUDFRONT_DISTRIBUTION_ID}" \
  --id "${INVALIDATION_ID}"

# Step 4: Verify rollback
WIDGET_URL="https://d1a2b3c4d5e6f7.cloudfront.net/latest/widget.js"
DEPLOYED_VERSION=$(curl -s "${WIDGET_URL}" | grep -oP 'version:\s*"\K[^"]+' || echo "unknown")

if [[ "${DEPLOYED_VERSION}" != "${TARGET_VERSION}" ]]; then
  echo "⚠️ WARNING: Deployed version (${DEPLOYED_VERSION}) doesn't match target (${TARGET_VERSION})"
  echo "CDN may still be propagating. Check again in 60 seconds."
else
  echo "✅ Rollback successful! Widget version ${TARGET_VERSION} is live."
fi

# Step 5: Send notification
curl -X POST https://api.makeaihq.com/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{
    \"event\": \"widget.rollback\",
    \"version\": \"${TARGET_VERSION}\",
    \"timestamp\": \"$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")\"
  }"

echo "📊 Monitor at: https://widgets.makeaihq.com/health/${TARGET_VERSION}"

Canary Release Pattern

Canary deployments route a small percentage of traffic to the new version while keeping most users on the stable version. If the canary metrics show elevated errors, you abort the deployment automatically.

This is different from feature flags: canary releases deploy two different widget versions simultaneously and use load balancing to route traffic.

Monitoring Deployment Health: Health Checks & Error Tracking

Post-deployment monitoring is non-negotiable. You need real-time visibility into widget health metrics: error rates, performance regressions, and API failures.

Health Check Monitor

// health-monitor.ts - Widget health check system
interface HealthCheck {
  version: string;
  timestamp: Date;
  healthy: boolean;
  metrics: {
    errorRate: number;
    p95Latency: number;
    memoryUsage: number;
    activeUsers: number;
  };
  errors: Array<{
    message: string;
    count: number;
    stack?: string;
  }>;
}

class WidgetHealthMonitor {
  private errorCounts: Map<string, number> = new Map();
  private latencySamples: number[] = [];

  async checkHealth(version: string): Promise<HealthCheck> {
    const metrics = await this.collectMetrics(version);
    const errors = this.getTopErrors();

    // Health thresholds
    const healthy =
      metrics.errorRate < 0.05 && // Less than 5% error rate
      metrics.p95Latency < 2000 && // Less than 2s p95 latency
      metrics.memoryUsage < 100 * 1024 * 1024; // Less than 100MB

    return {
      version,
      timestamp: new Date(),
      healthy,
      metrics,
      errors
    };
  }

  private async collectMetrics(version: string) {
    // Implementation: Query from monitoring service
    return {
      errorRate: 0.02,
      p95Latency: 850,
      memoryUsage: 45 * 1024 * 1024,
      activeUsers: 1250
    };
  }

  private getTopErrors() {
    return Array.from(this.errorCounts.entries())
      .sort((a, b) => b[1] - a[1])
      .slice(0, 10)
      .map(([message, count]) => ({ message, count }));
  }
}

Monitor these metrics every 60 seconds post-deployment. If error rate exceeds 5% or p95 latency exceeds 2 seconds for 3 consecutive checks, trigger automatic rollback.

Conclusion: Building a Production-Grade Deployment Pipeline

Production-grade widget deployment requires multiple safety layers: CDN distribution for global performance, semantic versioning for dependency management, feature flags for gradual rollouts, instant rollback capabilities, and continuous health monitoring. Each layer catches different failure modes—CDN failures, breaking changes, feature bugs, infrastructure issues.

The deployment scripts in this guide provide a foundation for 99.99% uptime ChatGPT widgets. Customize them for your infrastructure (CloudFlare vs CloudFront, GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI, Datadog vs New Relic), but maintain the core principles: immutable deployments, gradual rollouts, instant rollbacks, and continuous monitoring.

Start with the CDN deployment script to eliminate manual upload steps. Add the version manager to enforce SemVer discipline. Implement feature flags for risk-free deployments. Finally, integrate health monitoring to catch regressions before they impact users.

Ready to build bulletproof ChatGPT widgets with zero-downtime deployments? Try MakeAIHQ.com's deployment automation to ship widgets 10x faster with built-in rollback protection, automated health checks, and one-click CDN deployment.

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Related Resources

Internal Links

• ChatGPT Widget Development Complete Guide - Master widget development fundamentals
• ChatGPT App Testing & QA Complete Guide - Comprehensive testing strategies
• ChatGPT App Performance Optimization Guide - Performance tuning techniques
• Code Splitting & Lazy Loading for ChatGPT Widgets - Reduce bundle sizes
• Widget Performance Profiling with Chrome DevTools - Debug performance issues
• Widget Error Boundaries & Recovery - Graceful error handling
• Server-Side Rendering for ChatGPT Widgets (Next.js) - SSR deployment patterns

External Links

• CloudFlare Workers Documentation - Edge compute platform
• Feature Flags Best Practices by Martin Fowler - Comprehensive feature flag guide
• Canary Deployments Explained - Progressive delivery patterns

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          "@type": "HowToDirection",
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