Operate the version that is actually running

Establish deployment ownership and the requested operation first. Read-only review is not a request to redeploy; existing explicit deployment approval need not be requested again. Preserve the project's release and rollback process.

Read configuration and release identity for stale settings and drift, or retirement and recovery for cleanup.

Evidence to collect

• Source revision and isolated image-test result.
• Registry digest and deployed runtime version/endpoint binding.
• Configuration source and adoption time, without secret values.
• One check of the disputed live behavior, where authorized.
• Remaining uncertainty and the next observation that can resolve it.

Keep those evidence levels separate. A historical document, green source CI or a mutable image tag cannot independently establish the deployed behavior.

Inspect only what resolves the current question. Reuse unchanged valid checks; repeat a check when its inputs changed or a failure calls its result into question. Stop retrying unchanged infrastructure after a repeated failure at the same boundary.

Do not export raw secrets, user data or invocation bodies into diagnostic artifacts. Prepare exact changes before a mutation and retain rollback/recovery information appropriate to the operation.