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hardDesignScenarioConceptSeniorStaffLead

Nobody has write access to production, but the deploy pipeline can change anything. Where does separation of duties live now?

5 min readUpdated 2026-08-15

Answer

Short answer

Removing humans from production moves the privilege into the pipeline, so the boundary becomes who can change what it runs and which identity it assumes. Duties are separated by branch protection, environment approvals and deploying by digest, and it fails when one change alters both code and workflow.

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Likely follow-ups

  • Your pipeline needs to run a data fix that no migration covers. How is that authorised and evidenced?
  • How do you stop a self-hosted runner from becoming the standing production credential you removed?
  • What evidence would you hand an auditor to show that no change reached production without an independent approver?
  • Three engineers, one of whom is on call. What separation is real and what is theatre?

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