Windsurf prod checklist

Windsurf Production Checklist

Overview

Complete checklist for rolling out Windsurf to production teams. Covers workspace configuration, security hardening, team onboarding, and monitoring.

Prerequisites

• Windsurf plan selected (Pro, Teams, or Enterprise)
• Admin access to Windsurf dashboard
• Git repositories identified for rollout
• Team agreement on AI usage policy

Instructions

Phase 1: Pre-Deployment Configuration

Workspace Config (per repository):

• .windsurfrules created with project stack, patterns, and constraints
• .codeiumignore excludes secrets, build artifacts, and large binaries
• .windsurf/rules/ contains glob-triggered rules for file-type-specific patterns
• Workspace settings committed to .windsurf/settings.json

Security:

• Telemetry configured per company policy
• .codeiumignore covers all secret file patterns
• Autocomplete disabled for secret-containing file types (.env, .key)
• Enterprise: SSO/SAML configured and enforced
• Enterprise: zero-data-retention verified with Codeium

Team Policy:

• AI usage policy document created and shared
• Commit convention for AI-generated code established (e.g., [cascade] prefix)
• Code review requirements for AI-generated changes defined
• Competing AI extensions disabled (Copilot, TabNine)

Phase 2: Team Onboarding

Per-Developer Setup:

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/setup-windsurf.sh — run on each developer machine

echo "Setting up Windsurf for this project..."

# Verify Windsurf is installed
windsurf --version || { echo "Install Windsurf first: https://windsurf.com/download"; exit 1; }

# Verify config files exist
[ -f .windsurfrules ] || echo "WARNING: .windsurfrules missing"
[ -f .codeiumignore ] || echo "WARNING: .codeiumignore missing"

# Install recommended extensions
windsurf --install-extension esbenp.prettier-vscode
windsurf --install-extension dbaeumer.vscode-eslint

# Disable conflicting extensions
windsurf --disable-extension github.copilot 2>/dev/null || true

echo "Setup complete. Open project folder (not monorepo root) for best AI context."

Training Checklist:

• Demo: Supercomplete (Tab) vs Cascade (Cmd+L) vs Command (Cmd+I)
• Demo: Write mode vs Chat mode
• Demo: @ mentions for file context
• Demo: Turbo mode with allow/deny lists
• Demo: Previews for UI development
• Demo: Git checkpoint before Cascade workflow
• Share: .windsurfrules explained
• Share: Credit system and model selection

Phase 3: Monitoring and Optimization

Admin Dashboard Monitoring:

# Metrics to track weekly (Admin Dashboard > Analytics)
metrics:
  adoption:
    - active_users_vs_total_seats    # target: >80%
    - daily_active_users             # trend: increasing
  quality:
    - completion_acceptance_rate     # target: >25%
    - cascade_success_rate           # target: >70%
  efficiency:
    - credits_consumed_per_user      # watch for outliers
    - tasks_completed_per_day        # proxy for productivity

Quarterly Review:

• Audit seat utilization -- downgrade inactive seats
• Review .windsurfrules -- update with new patterns
• Check for new Windsurf features in changelog
• Survey team satisfaction and pain points
• Analyze credit usage patterns

Phase 4: Rollback Procedure

If Windsurf causes issues:

1. Disable Cascade for team: Admin Dashboard > Features > Cascade > Off
2. Developers can still use Supercomplete (non-agentic)
3. Switch to manual coding while investigating
4. Review recent Cascade-generated commits for issues
5. File support ticket with debug bundle (see windsurf-debug-bundle)

Error Handling

Issue	Severity	Mitigation
Cascade generates broken code	Medium	Enforce tests-pass-before-merge policy
AI exposes secrets in suggestions	High	Audit .codeiumignore, rotate exposed secrets
Team not adopting	Low	Training session, share productivity data
Credits exhausted mid-sprint	Medium	Monitor usage, buy additional credits proactively

Examples

Recommended Extension Set

// .vscode/extensions.json (also works in Windsurf)
{
  "recommendations": [
    "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
    "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
    "biomejs.biome"
  ],
  "unwantedRecommendations": [
    "github.copilot",
    "tabnine.tabnine-vscode"
  ]
}

Quick Compliance Check

set -euo pipefail
echo "Config: $([ -f .windsurfrules ] && echo 'OK' || echo 'MISSING')"
echo "Ignore: $([ -f .codeiumignore ] && echo 'OK' || echo 'MISSING')"
echo "Rules:  $([ -d .windsurf/rules ] && echo 'OK' || echo 'MISSING')"

Resources

• Windsurf Admin Guide
• Windsurf Enterprise
• Windsurf Security

Next Steps

For version upgrades, see windsurf-upgrade-migration.