# A pre-launch checklist for shipping smart contracts to mainnet

> The production-minded checks Clixo runs before any contract touches mainnet — from access control to monitoring and a tested upgrade path.

- **Published:** 2026-06-05
- **Author:** Clixo
- **Reading time:** 2 min read
- **Tags:** web3, smart-contracts, security
- **Canonical URL:** https://clixo.sh/blog/smart-contract-launch-checklist

Shipping a smart contract is not like shipping a web app. There is no hotfix at 2am — once value is locked in an immutable contract, mistakes are expensive and public. Here is the checklist we run before anything reaches mainnet.

## 1. Access control is explicit

Every privileged function should answer one question without ambiguity: *who can call this, and what happens if that key is compromised?*

- Owner/admin roles are documented and minimized.
- Multi-sig on anything that can move funds or upgrade logic.
- No forgotten `onlyOwner` left on a function that should be public — or vice versa.

## 2. The tests model real adversaries

Happy-path tests are table stakes. We write tests for the attacker:

- Reentrancy on every external call.
- Integer edges and rounding direction.
- Failure modes when a dependency (oracle, bridge, token) misbehaves.

## 3. There is a monitoring plan before launch

You cannot watch a contract you haven't instrumented. We wire up event indexing and alerts *before* launch so the first anomaly shows up on a dashboard, not in a user's angry message.

## 4. The upgrade path is tested, not theoretical

If the contract is upgradeable, the upgrade has been rehearsed on a fork. If it's immutable, the migration story is written down. Either way, "what do we do when we find a bug" has an answer before launch, not after.

> Contract flows, wallet UX, permissions, and monitoring planned before launch.

## 5. A human read the wallet UX

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  A["1. Access Control Explicit"] --> B["2. Tests Model Real Adversaries"]
  B --> C["3. Monitoring Plan Active Before Launch"]
  C --> D["4. Upgrade Path Tested on Fork"]
  D --> E["5. Human Tested Wallet UX End-to-End"]
  E --> F["Ready for Mainnet"]
```

Most "smart contract bugs" users hit are actually wallet-UX bugs: a confusing approval, an unclear gas estimate, a signature request with no context. We walk the full flow as a first-time user before we call it done.

Launching something on-chain? [Talk to us about your build](https://clixo.sh/#contact).

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