Runbook Generator

What This Skill Does

The Runbook Generator skill creates operational runbooks from a service name. It provides customizable templates for deployment, incident response, maintenance, and rollback workflows. This skill is useful for Dev Ops and SRE teams needing to quickly standardize runbooks.

When to Use

• Generate a baseline runbook for a new service.
• Standardize runbooks across different teams.
• Improve on-call onboarding with consistent documentation.
• Create repeatable runbook scaffolding.
• Quickly respond to incidents with pre-defined steps.
• Document rollback procedures for critical services.

Key Features

• Generates runbook skeletons from the CLI.Provides standard sections for common operations.
• Includes escalation and incident handling placeholders.
• Offers reference templates for deployment playbooks.
• Supports customization for service-specific needs.
• Promotes consistent runbook structure.

Tier: POWERFUL

Category: Engineering
Domain: Dev Ops / Site Reliability Engineering

Overview

Generate operational runbooks quickly from a service name, then customize for deployment, incident response, maintenance, and rollback workflows.

Core Capabilities

Runbook skeleton generation from a CLI Standard sections for start/stop/health/rollback Structured escalation and incident handling placeholders Reference templates for deployment and incident playbooks

When to Use

A service has no runbook and needs a baseline immediately Existing runbooks are inconsistent across teams On-call onboarding requires standardized operations docs You need repeatable runbook scaffolding for new services

Quick Start

Print runbook to stdout

python3 scripts/runbook_generator.py payments-api

Write runbook file python3 scripts/runbook_generator.py payments-api --owner platform --output docs/runbooks/payments-api.md

Recommended Workflow

Generate the initial skeleton with scripts/runbook_generator.py. Fill in service-specific commands and URLs. Add verification checks and rollback triggers. Dry-run in staging. Store runbook in version control near service code.

Reference Docs

references/runbook-templates.md

Common Pitfalls

Missing rollback triggers or rollback commands Steps without expected output checks Stale ownership/escalation contacts Runbooks never tested outside of incidents

Best Practices

Keep every command copy-pasteable. Include health checks after every critical step. Validate runbooks on a fixed review cadence. Update runbook content after incidents and postmortems.Runbook Generator

Tier: POWERFUL
Category: Engineering
Domain: Dev Ops / Site Reliability Engineering

Overview

Generate operational runbooks quickly from a service name, then customize for deployment, incident response, maintenance, and rollback workflows.

Core Capabilities

Runbook skeleton generation from a CLI Standard sections for start/stop/health/rollback Structured escalation and incident handling placeholders Reference templates for deployment and incident playbooks

When to Use

A service has no runbook and needs a baseline immediately Existing runbooks are inconsistent across teams On-call onboarding requires standardized operations docs You need repeatable runbook scaffolding for new services

Quick Start

Print runbook to stdout

python3 scripts/runbook_generator.py payments-api

Write runbook file python3 scripts/runbook_generator.py payments-api --owner platform --output docs/runbooks/payments-api.md

Recommended Workflow

Generate the initial skeleton with scripts/runbook_generator.py. Fill in service-specific commands and URLs. Add verification checks and rollback triggers. Dry-run in staging. Store runbook in version control near service code.

Reference Docs

references/runbook-templates.md

Common Pitfalls

Missing rollback triggers or rollback commands Steps without expected output checks Stale ownership/escalation contacts Runbooks never tested outside of incidents

Best Practices

Keep every command copy-pasteable. Include health checks after every critical step. Validate runbooks on a fixed review cadence. Update runbook content after incidents and postmortems.