The existing /api health check endpoint creates a new Redis connection
on every request and checks both Redis and Postgres availability. During
peak traffic, this creates unnecessary load and can cause cascading
failures when either service is slow - instances get marked unhealthy,
traffic shifts to remaining instances, which then also fail health
checks.
The new /health endpoint:
- Returns immediately with 200 {"status":"woot"}
- Skips all middleware and authentication
- No Redis or Postgres dependency
- Suitable for health checks that only need to verify the web server is
responding