The Hotfix Process: Fix Production Fast and Safely

A hotfix process is the agreed, shortened path for getting an urgent fix into production outside your normal release cycle. It keeps the safety steps that matter, such as testing and rollback, while skipping the ones that only slow you down, such as waiting for the next sprint.

The worst hotfix is the one that causes a second incident. A clear process exists to prevent exactly that.

What counts as a hotfix

Not every bug deserves the fast lane. Agree a definition up front, for example:

• Production is down, or a core user journey is broken.
• Data is being lost or corrupted.
• There is a security exposure.
• A client-critical deadline is at risk because of a defect.

Everything else goes into the backlog and ships with the next planned release. Without this rule, the hotfix path becomes the main path and your release discipline evaporates.

The hotfix process, step by step

1. Raise it through one channel. A client email at 6pm, a phone call and a chat message should all end up as one structured request with a description, impact and screenshots.
2. Triage and accept. Someone with authority confirms it qualifies as a hotfix and assigns an owner.
3. Branch from production. Fix the code that is live, not the half-finished work on your main branch.
4. Keep the change small. Fix the problem, nothing else. Refactoring can wait.
5. Test the fix and its neighbours. A quick regression testing pass on the surrounding area catches the knock-on bugs.
6. Deploy with a short checklist. Backup, deploy, smoke-test, confirm.
7. Merge back. The fix must land in your main branch too, or the next release reintroduces the bug.
8. Document and close. Record what broke, what changed and who approved it.

Shipping something soon? See how Flow turns releases into a checklist, not a gamble. Get started with Flow →

Rules that keep hotfixes safe

• One owner per hotfix. Two people fixing the same issue in parallel is how conflicting changes reach production.
• No scope creep. "While we're in there" is the most dangerous phrase in a hotfix.
• Always merge back. Track this as an explicit step, not an assumption.
• Review afterwards. If the same area keeps needing hotfixes, it belongs on the roadmap. Our guide to post-launch support covers how to plan for this.

How Flow helps

Jira is often used to track hotfixes as high-priority issues, and many teams pair it with Jira Service Management, a separate product, when clients need to raise requests directly. Flow builds the client-facing hotfix path into the same delivery platform:

• Hotfix requests: clients raise urgent fixes through a structured path, so you get the description, impact and screenshots in one place rather than scattered across email.
• Team acceptance: your team reviews and accepts the request before work starts, which keeps the definition of a hotfix honest.
• Hotfix releases and a hotfix document: complete the fix as its own release type, separate from planned releases, with a document recording what was done.
• Full change history on tickets, so the audit trail of who changed what survives long after the incident.

Livex Flow also lets you see which release each ticket shipped in, which answers the inevitable "is the fix live yet?" question.