CASE 168 · QUIVER · 2023
Local dev that runs what production runs.
A logistics platform had a local dev environment that used SQLite where production used Aurora, an in-memory queue where production used SQS, and no Lambda runtime at all. "Worked locally, broke in staging" was a weekly occurrence. We brought local dev to production-parity using LocalStack.
Logistics platform
PLATFORM
2023
RESULTS
What changed, by the numbers.
"WORKED LOCALLY" INCIDENTS
−84%
LOCAL ENV PARITY
94%
STARTUP TIME
< 45s
STAGING ESCAPES
−63%
HOW IT WENT
The shortcut had seemed reasonable years earlier — running Aurora locally was expensive, running SQS was awkward, so the local environment used substitutes. The cost of the shortcut had become the steady stream of "tested locally, broke when I deployed" surprises.
LocalStack provided emulation for SQS, SNS, S3, Lambda, EventBridge, and a handful of other services we used. Docker Compose orchestrated the local stack including a real Postgres (close enough to Aurora for development). Terraform was shared between local and production deployments — same modules, different backends.
"Worked locally" incidents dropped 84% year-over-year. Local environment parity hit 94% of services (the 6% are things LocalStack doesn’t emulate accurately yet). Staging-escape incidents (where production behaviour differed from staging) dropped 63%.
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