Rollback
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
A rollback is the panic button. When you deploy something and it breaks production, you hit rollback and the system reverts to the last working version — like an undo button for deployments. Every deploy should have a rollback plan.
Real Talk
A rollback reverts a deployed application to a previous known-good version. Modern platforms (Vercel, Kubernetes, Heroku) support one-click rollbacks. Database rollbacks are more complex and require carefully designed migrations with both up and down functions.
When You'll Hear This
"The deploy caused a 500 spike — rolling back now." / "Always test rollback procedures before you need them in a crisis."
Related Terms
Build
A build is the process of turning your development code into something a real computer or browser can run efficiently.
Codebase
The codebase is the whole collection of source code that makes up a project — every file, folder, and line of code.
Deploy
Deploying is taking your code from your computer and making it live on the internet for real users. Before: only you can see it.
MVP (MVP)
An MVP is the simplest version of your product that actually works well enough for real users to use and for you to learn from.
Ship
Shipping means getting your feature or fix out to users — it's the end goal of all the coding.