grammarly-prod-checklist

Grammarly Production Checklist

Overview

Grammarly provides AI-powered writing assistance with grammar checking, tone detection, plagiarism scanning, and style suggestions. A production integration processes user-submitted text through Grammarly's API and returns actionable suggestions. Failures mean unchecked content goes live, suggestion latency degrades UX, or sensitive text leaks outside approved processing boundaries.

Authentication & Secrets

GRAMMARLY_API_KEY stored in secrets manager (not config files)
Client credentials (ID + secret) separated from application code
Token refresh logic handles expiry before API calls fail
Separate credentials for dev/staging/prod environments
Key rotation schedule documented (90-day cycle)

API Integration

Production base URL configured (https://api.grammarly.com/v1)
Rate limit handling with exponential backoff
Text chunking implemented for documents > 100K characters
Minimum 30-word validation before sending to API
Suggestion categories configured per use case (grammar, tone, clarity)
AI detection endpoint integrated if content authenticity required
Plagiarism check timeout handling (longer processing for large docs)

Error Handling & Resilience

Circuit breaker configured for Grammarly API outages
Retry with backoff for 429/5xx responses
Writing score thresholds defined per content type
Graceful degradation when API is unavailable (queue, not block)
Error responses logged with request IDs for support escalation
Partial suggestion results handled (incomplete analysis on timeout)

Monitoring & Alerting

API latency tracked per request type (check, detect, plagiarism)
Error rate alerts set (threshold: >5% over 5 minutes)
Token refresh failures trigger immediate notification
Suggestion acceptance rate tracked for quality feedback loop
Daily API usage against plan limits monitored

Validation Script

async function checkGrammarlyReadiness(): Promise<void> {
  const checks: { name: string; pass: boolean; detail: string }[] = [];
  // API connectivity
  try {
    const res = await fetch('https://api.grammarly.com/v1/check', {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.GRAMMARLY_API_KEY}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify({ text: 'This is a production readiness test sentence for validation.' }),
    });
    checks.push({ name: 'Grammarly API', pass: res.ok, detail: res.ok ? 'Connected' : `HTTP ${res.status}` });
  } catch (e: any) { checks.push({ name: 'Grammarly API', pass: false, detail: e.message }); }
  // Credentials present
  checks.push({ name: 'API Key Set', pass: !!process.env.GRAMMARLY_API_KEY, detail: process.env.GRAMMARLY_API_KEY ? 'Present' : 'MISSING' });
  // Rate limit headroom
  try {
    const res = await fetch('https://api.grammarly.com/v1/usage', {
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.GRAMMARLY_API_KEY}` },
    });
    checks.push({ name: 'Usage Endpoint', pass: res.ok, detail: res.ok ? 'Accessible' : `HTTP ${res.status}` });
  } catch (e: any) { checks.push({ name: 'Usage Endpoint', pass: false, detail: e.message }); }
  for (const c of checks) console.log(`[${c.pass ? 'PASS' : 'FAIL'}] ${c.name}: ${c.detail}`);
}
checkGrammarlyReadiness();

Error Handling

Check	Risk if Skipped	Priority
Token refresh logic	Silent auth failure blocks all checks	P1
Text chunking	Large documents rejected or truncated	P1
Rate limit handling	Burst traffic triggers 429 cascade	P2
Plagiarism timeout	Stuck requests block content pipeline	P2
Usage monitoring	Surprise plan overage charges	P3

Prerequisites

A protected production approval, named incident/rollback owners, and an artifact/configuration revision proven in sandbox and staging.
Baselines for health, latency, quota, consent, retention, and synthetic functionality plus a canary integration.

Instructions

Confirm environment, secret reference, destination allowlist, artifact digest, retention policy, and approval before enabling production.
Run health, quota, consent, retention, and behavior probes on the canary using fictitious text only.
Monitor aggregate metrics through the observation window; halt on errors, scope/retention drift, or a failed probe.
Promote in bounded stages or restore the previous revision, recording the decision and verified rollback.
Close only after owner acceptance of the redacted receipt and revocation of temporary credentials.

Output

Create a readiness receipt with revision, canary, health/latency/quota/retention results, approvals, outcome, and rollback reference. Exclude credentials and text.

Examples

revision=r44; canary=synthetic-editor; health=pass; quota=within-budget; consent=pass; retention=none; outcome=promote is a complete canary decision.

Resources

Next Steps

See grammarly-security-basics for text data handling and privacy controls.