# 11. Production checklist

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A short list, aimed at the gap between "this demo works" and "this is safe to point at a real
feed." Each item links back to the chapter that explains the why.

- **Confirm the job repository is actually persistent** — query for `BATCH_JOB_INSTANCE`
  after startup, don't assume from the dependency list. [Chapter 10](10-resourceless-vs-jdbc.md).
- **Pick chunk size from measurement, not habit.** Smaller costs more round trips; larger costs
  more rework per failure. [Chapter 3](03-chunk-oriented-processing.md).
- **Decide skip vs. fail-and-restart per failure type, not per job.** A step can have a
  `skipLimit` for genuinely expected bad rows and still fail hard past that limit — the two
  are not mutually exclusive. [Chapter 8](08-skip-vs-restart.md).
- **Use `chunk(int).transactionManager(tx)`, not `chunk(int, tx)`,** unless you specifically need
  the legacy `SimpleStepBuilder` for something the new model does not yet cover.
  [Chapter 2](02-anatomy-of-a-job.md).
- **Do not use `beanMapped()` against a Java record** without checking your exact Spring
  Framework version's record support; prefer `itemPreparedStatementSetter` when in doubt.
  [Chapter 6](06-jdbc-writer-and-records.md).
- **Give every step you want to always re-run on restart `allowStartIfComplete(true)`
  explicitly** — a reporting or notification step that silently gets skipped after a
  restart is a surprising, hard-to-notice gap. [Chapter 8](08-skip-vs-restart.md).
- **A custom `ItemReader` that does not implement `ItemStream` restarts from scratch every time**,
  which is fine for an idempotent reader and a bug for anything else — check this
  deliberately rather than by finding out during an incident. [Chapter 7](07-restartability.md).
- **`spring.batch.job.enabled=false` if you launch jobs yourself** through `JobOperator`, so the
  auto-configured runner does not also try. [Chapter 5](05-launching-and-jobparameters.md).
- **Delete or secure any diagnostic endpoint you add while building this out.** This module has
  none, but the pattern (an endpoint dumping live `JobExplorer` state) is common enough to call
  out: it is invaluable while developing and a liability left in production.

## Should you even build a custom batch job for this?

Sometimes the honest answer is no. If the volume is small enough to fit in a single request-response
cycle and does not need to survive a crash mid-way, a scheduled `@Component` method with its own
try/catch is less machinery than a full Job/Step/JobRepository setup, and easier for the next
person to read. Spring Batch earns its complexity when you actually need the things this article
demonstrates — durable progress tracking, transactional chunking, a real restart story
— not by default just because the word "batch" is in the requirements.

## Further reading

- [Spring Batch reference documentation](https://docs.spring.io/spring-batch/reference/) (`rel="nofollow"`)
- [What's new in Spring Batch 6](https://docs.spring.io/spring-batch/reference/whatsnew.html) (`rel="nofollow"`)
- [Spring Batch 6.0 Migration Guide](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-batch/wiki/Spring-Batch-6.0-Migration-Guide) (`rel="nofollow"`, and see [chapter 9](09-corrections.md) for where this specific document was wrong)
- [Spring Boot 4.1.0 release announcement](https://spring.io/blog/2026/06/10/spring-boot-4/) (`rel="nofollow"`)