Rollback

A recovery operation that restores or compensates for part of a system change after the new state causes unacceptable behavior.

A code rollback may redeploy an earlier artifact. Database changes may need a reverse migration or forward repair, and emails, payments, deleted records, or leaked data cannot be undone by restoring code. The earlier version may also be incompatible with a changed schema or dependency, so rollback is a tested procedure rather than a promise attached to version history.

Builder example

Fast recovery requires immutable artifacts, compatible data plans, observable health checks, authority to trigger the action, and knowledge of external effects. Some incidents are safer to fix forward or disable behind a flag than to restore the whole previous release.

Common confusion: Revert, redeploy, restore, compensate, disable, and fix forward are different recovery moves. Rollback should name exactly which state changes and which effects remain.