Feat/document deployment steps

[AAdewunmi]

Summary

Documents the production-like deployment path for ReturnHub with a concrete operator flow from environment setup to a healthy application behind Nginx.

Changes

• add and expand docs/deployment.md
• define the purpose and scope of the production-like deployment path
• document the required production environment variables
• align the documented env contract with the repo’s actual settings behavior
• document the canonical Compose-based production stack using docker-compose.prod.yml
• describe the stable service topology: db, web, and nginx
• add an explicit operator sequence from build to healthy application
• document verification steps for:
  • config.settings.production
  • /api/health/
  • landing page security headers

Behavior

• gives operators a single documented path for production-like deployment
• makes DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.production the explicit production switch
• clarifies how production.env should be used with the Compose production stack
• shows how to confirm the stack is healthy after startup

Why

• reduces ambiguity around how production deployment is supposed to work
• aligns deployment docs with the current production Compose stack, Gunicorn startup path, Nginx proxy layer, and env naming
• makes the path from image build to healthy application explicit and repeatable
• avoids relying on ad hoc shell exports or undocumented assumptions

Validation

• reviewed the deployment guide against:
  • docker-compose.prod.yml
  • Dockerfile.prod
  • production.env.example
  • config/settings/production.py
  • the current Nginx reverse-proxy configuration

Result

• the repo now has a concrete deployment guide for the canonical production-like stack
• operators have a documented sequence to go from env setup and image build to a healthy app and verified headers

Notes

• the documented env contract reflects the current code, which reads POSTGRES_* values directly rather than DATABASE_URL
• the guide is aligned with the current Compose-based production path and reverse-proxy setup

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.

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