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🧩 Gecian Hub — Incident & Recovery Handbook

A guide for handling system failures, outages, or any critical incidents in Gecian Hub. Designed for contributors and student leads to act quickly and safely.

1. Incident Response Overview

Incidents may include:

  • Deployment failures
  • Database corruption or loss
  • Service downtime
  • Security breaches
  • User-reported functional issues

The primary goal is to restore functionality quickly, protect user data, and document all actions.

2. Incident Assessment & Notification

  1. Stay calm. Take note of the exact problem.

  2. Identify affected systems:

  3. Frontend (Next.js / Netlify)

  4. Backend (Next.js API / Neon DB)
  5. Authentication (Firebase)
  6. Analytics / monitoring tools
  7. Notify Leads immediately (Lead, Tech Lead, Outreach Lead) using WhatsApp or GitHub Discussions.

  8. Record basic details:

  9. Date & time

  10. Description
  11. Systems affected
  12. Any immediate actions taken

3. Recovery Procedures

3.1 Code Rollback

  • Revert to the last stable commit in GitHub.
  • Ensure CI/CD pipelines run successfully.
  • Deploy to Netlify with rollback steps if the new deployment fails.

3.2 Database Recovery

  • Restore Neon (PostgreSQL) database from the most recent backup.
  • Validate core tables and critical data (users, forms, submissions).

3.3 Frontend / User Cache Issues

  • Advise users to clear browser cache or IndexedDB if errors persist.
  • Verify that IndexedDB storage and app installation behavior works as expected.

3.4 Security & Privacy

  • Confirm no sensitive data was exposed.
  • Check logs for unusual activity.
  • Ensure dependency updates (Dependabot / Snyk) are applied.

4. Stabilization

  1. Pause all new merges or deployments until the system is stable.

  2. Test core functionality:

  3. User login / Firebase Auth

  4. Form submissions and response retrieval
  5. Basic analytics and reporting
  6. Document all steps, fixes, and changes.

5. Communication

  • Notify all contributors once the system is stable.
  • Provide a summary of the incident in GitHub Discussions.
  • Note lessons learned and preventive actions.

6. Preventive Measures

  • Daily Neon backups
  • Test all changes in staging first
  • Keep dependencies updated with Dependabot / Snyk
  • Follow documented runbooks for rollback & recovery
  • Communicate clearly with leads before taking any critical action

7. Leadership Backup

  • If the current Lead / Tech Lead is unavailable:

  • Contact the Mentor / previous Lead (Shadil).

  • Use stored credentials & backup code for emergency deployment.
  • Document all actions for transparency.

⚠️ Note: If succession fails, the next person in line can restart the project locally, host on Netlify, and continue while maintaining continuity.

8. Quick Incident Response Checklist

A condensed version for urgent situations.

  1. Assess & Notify

  2. Identify affected systems

  3. Notify Leads / Mentor

  4. Document

  5. Time, issue, actions taken

  6. Rollback

  7. Code → Revert last stable commit → Deploy

  8. Database → Restore backup

  9. Frontend → Clear cache / IndexedDB

  10. Stabilize

  11. Pause merges

  12. Test core workflows

  13. Notify & Review

  14. Inform contributors / users

  15. Document root cause and lessons

  16. Preventive Measures

  17. Daily backups

  18. Test in staging
  19. Update dependencies

9. Final Notes

  • No unnecessary data should be collected or stored.
  • All actions should prioritize user privacy, security, and system integrity.
  • Keep documentation updated for future contributors.
  • Emergency restores are the responsibility of the current Lead / Tech Lead; legal and privacy risks are explicitly their responsibility.

This handbook ensures continuity, safeguards data, and empowers new contributors or leads to handle incidents safely.