# Add health and readiness endpoints with tests

A service the platform cannot ask whether it is ready, given endpoints that answer honestly.

Category: Observability and operability
Source: https://letsship.ai/use-cases/add-health-and-readiness-endpoints
Published: 2026-08-25

## Goal

Add health and readiness endpoints that reflect real dependency state.

## Acceptance criteria

- Readiness reflects real dependency state, not a constant
- Health distinguishes alive from ready
- The unhealthy path is covered by a test, not only the happy one
- The endpoints are cheap enough to poll frequently

## What lands as proof

A test forcing a dependency down and asserting readiness reports unready, which is the case that matters.

## Prompt

Copy this to an agent to open the ticket:

```text
Create a Linear issue in my team and assign it to the SHIP agent.

Title: Add health and readiness endpoints to {service}

Description: Add health and readiness endpoints that reflect real dependency state.

Acceptance criteria:
- Readiness reflects real dependency state, not a constant
- Health distinguishes alive from ready
- The unhealthy path is covered by a test, not only the happy one
- The endpoints are cheap enough to poll frequently

Before you create the issue, find a service in this repository with no health endpoint or one that always returns success, and replace {service}.
```

## Questions

### What does the agent actually change?

The ticket is scoped to one outcome: add health and readiness endpoints that reflect real dependency state. Work that serves that outcome is in scope, and anything outside it is left for a separate ticket, so the pull request stays reviewable.

### How do I know the work is done?

The pull request carries the evidence, not only the diff. Here that means endpoints respond, the unhealthy path is covered too, so a reviewer can confirm the result without reproducing the work locally.

### How much oversight does this need?

None is required before the run starts. Every claim this ticket makes can be checked by machine, so the agent works straight through and a person reviews the finished pull request like any other.