Gaia Product Production Hardening
Scope and when to use
Use this skill to take a proven slice to feature/content-complete and production-grade. Scope is one-off + IAP/IAG monetization; B2B seat-based SaaS is out of scope and an auto-renew model is red-lined unless an in-scope decision is recorded.
Use when:
- a passing vertical slice must scale to a shippable v1
- production IAP/entitlement must be hardened and reconciled end-to-end
- device, performance, localization, and QA matrices must be cleared
Do not use when:
- no vertical slice has passed its gate yet (run the slice first)
- the title is shipping and only needs soft-launch/live-ops
Required inputs
- the proven vertical slice and the binding monetization instrumentation contract
- the current unit-economics model version and net-by-geo price tiers
- target device/OS matrix, projected DAU, and licensing status
Owned outputs
- content scaled to v1 with tooling and post-launch runway
- localized, device-tested, accessible, load-tested production build
- a production-grade IAP/entitlement path reconciled end-to-end
Core workflow
- Scale content to v1 via tooling/pipeline; validate each batch against economy/difficulty and build post-launch runway.
- Bring art/audio/VFX to the lovable bar with all licensing cleared.
- Localize at scale (culturally adapted) and reconcile localized price tiers to net-by-geo, with locale QA.
- Clear the device/OS matrix and performance targets: low-end Android, thermals/memory/load, a crash-free-users target, and fragmented-Android QA.
- Harden backend/economy services + save/cloud-sync + anti-cheat + IAP-fraud/refund-abuse defenses; load test at projected DAU and confirm remote-config economy.
- Meet an accessibility baseline as a featuring criterion.
- Run multi-layer QA (functional, soak/stability, compatibility, load) and reconcile production IAP end-to-end.
End-to-end IAP reconciliation
- Production IAP must reconcile from purchase through entitlement to ledger.
- Localized price tiers must tie back to the net-by-geo model, not just display.
- Refund-abuse and IAP-fraud defenses must hold under projected DAU load.
Anti-patterns
- do not scale content without validating each batch against the economy
- do not ship localized prices that drift from the net-by-geo model
- do not skip low-end / fragmented-Android device QA
- do not load test below projected DAU
- do not call IAP done without an end-to-end reconciliation
Handoff and downstream impact
- hand soft-launch a feature/content-complete, production-grade build
- hand the money gate the reconciled production IAP path and net-by-geo tiers
- name the loop-back: a failed QA or reconciliation returns to hardening
Completion checklist
- the build is feature/content-complete with post-launch runway
- localization, device, performance, and accessibility matrices pass
- backend/economy/anti-cheat are load-tested at projected DAU
- production IAP/entitlement reconciles end-to-end