[Verse 1 – Male]
Monday morning, coffee cooling slow,
I open up the ledger before I let it go.
Every build stage numbered, every gate laid bare,
If a stranger reads it, they should see what's there.
No locked drawer, no whispered code,
The pipeline's public — that's the honest road.
[Verse 2 – Female]
And next to it, the paper that explains the why,
The SDL document, signed and hung up high.
Threat models drawn in plain, unhurried ink,
So the next new hire knows just what to think.
We don't bury caution in a private file,
We post the blueprint, walk the open aisle.
[Chorus – Both]
Publish the pipeline, pin the plan,
Sign the SDL so anyone can scan.
Once a month we read the wreck,
SolarWinds, and xz, and 3CX —
Then we turn and check our own reflection,
Habit is the shield, not the correction.
[Verse 3 – Male]
March comes around, I pull the old report,
The one where a maintainer's trust got sold and caught.
A single tired stranger merged some quiet lines,
And a backdoor rode home hidden between the signs.
I hold that story up beside our gate,
And ask, "Could this slip through? Would we catch it late?"
[Verse 4 – Female]
Then SolarWinds — the build server, poisoned still,
A signed update carrying a hidden will.
I check our signing keys, I check who holds the code,
I trace the update path from the source to the road.
And 3CX, the app that phoned back home to spies —
I check our own dependencies with wide-open eyes.
[Chorus – Both]
Publish the pipeline, pin the plan,
Sign the SDL so anyone can scan.
Once a month we read the wreck,
SolarWinds, and xz, and 3CX —
Then we turn and check our own reflection,
Habit is the shield, not the correction.
[Bridge – Male then Female, layering]
It's not paranoia, it's just paying rent
On every open door a compromise has bent.
Read the post-mortem like a letter from a friend,
Warning what to watch for before the story's end.
The pipeline's not a secret — secrets rot and hide,
The document's a lantern we keep lit outside.
[Verse 5 – Both, trading lines]
So publish what you build, don't tuck it in a vault,
Sign the SDL, admit the possible fault.
Mark your calendar, first Monday, steady pace,
Pull a post-mortem, hold it to your own face.
SolarWinds taught signing, xz taught the slow build trust,
3CX taught watching third-party code like you must.
[Chorus – Both, softer]
Publish the pipeline, pin the plan,
Sign the SDL so anyone can scan.
Once a month we read the wreck,
SolarWinds, and xz, and 3CX —
Then we turn and check our own reflection,
Habit is the shield, not the correction.
[Outro – Both, quiet]
Paper it, share it, read what went wrong,
Check your own pipeline, hum this little song.
Publish it. Sign it. Read it. Check it. Again.