Runbook Generator

Tier: POWERFUL

Category: Engineering

Domain: DevOps / Site Reliability Engineering

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Reference Docs

• references/runbook-templates.md

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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.