The direct answer
Go-live gates are explicit checks that must pass before production risk increases. They replace "we're ready because the date is here" with evidence operators can review.
Example gate categories
Functional criteria cover critical user journeys passing automated tests. Operational criteria require on-call runbooks and alerts. Data criteria verify mode labels on external metrics. Security covers auth, RBAC, and secrets. Performance requires load within agreed bounds during soak.
Partial promotion
Full blast radius is rarely necessary. Promote one workflow, one customer segment, or one region — with monitoring before widening scope.
What we do on QuantGorilla
QuantGorilla remains in development / early access with paper-first defaults. Live paths stay gated behind explicit operator configuration and readiness artifacts — we do not present paper soak metrics as live performance.
Studio delivery alignment
Our platform engineering and MVP build offers include launch checklists and known-issues logs. If you need help defining gates, start with a project inquiry.