Runbook Generator
Analyze a codebase and generate production-grade operational runbooks with copy-paste commands, verification checks after every step, rollback procedures for every destructive action, escalation paths with contact information, and time estimates for capacity planning. Detects the stack (CI/CD, database, hosting, containers) and produces runbooks tailored to the actual infrastructure. Includes staleness detection to flag runbooks when referenced config files change.
Keywords: runbook, operational procedures, incident response, deployment, rollback, database maintenance, scaling, monitoring, on-call, SRE, postmortem
Core Capabilities
- Stack detection — identify CI/CD platform, database, hosting, and orchestration from repo files; map to runbook templates; extract connection strings, deploy commands, and infra details.
- Runbook types — deployment (pre-checks, deploy, smoke tests, rollback), incident response (triage→diagnose→mitigate→resolve→postmortem), database maintenance (backup, migration, vacuum, reindex), scaling (horizontal/vertical), and monitoring (alerts, dashboards, on-call rotation).
- Format discipline — numbered steps with copy-paste commands, a VERIFY check after EVERY step, time estimates, a rollback procedure for every destructive action, and escalation paths with decision criteria.
- Maintenance — staleness detection linked to config file modification dates, quarterly review cadence, and a staging dry-run validation framework.
When to Use
- Codebase has no runbooks and you need to bootstrap them.
- Existing runbooks are outdated or incomplete.
- Onboarding a new engineer for on-call rotation.
- Preparing for an incident response drill.
- Post-incident improvement: updating runbooks with lessons learned.
Clarify First
Before generating the runbook, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:
- Runbook type — deployment / incident response / database maintenance / scaling / monitoring (selects the template and step structure)
- Actual stack — CI/CD platform, database, hosting, and orchestration (every copy-paste command and rollback step is stack-specific)
- Escalation contacts & severity routing — who is paged at each level (fills the escalation table; a runbook without it is unusable on-call)
Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.
Tools
| Tool | Purpose | Command |
|---|---|---|
runbook_scaffolder.py | Generate runbook markdown templates from a JSON service definition | python scripts/runbook_scaffolder.py -i service.json --type deployment -o runbook.md |
runbook_validator.py | Validate runbook markdown for completeness and quality (required sections, VERIFY blocks, hardcoded creds, escalation table) | python scripts/runbook_validator.py --dir docs/runbooks --strict |
staleness_checker.py | Check runbook freshness against configurable staleness thresholds | python scripts/staleness_checker.py docs/runbooks --threshold 90 --json |
References
Load the reference that matches the task — keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:
- references/runbook-templates.md — the stack-detection shell commands plus full deployment, incident response, and database maintenance runbook templates with copy-paste commands, VERIFY blocks, rollback, and escalation tables. Read when scanning a repo or writing a runbook.
- references/staleness-and-maintenance.md — the staleness-detection CI script and the 7-step quarterly review process. Read when automating freshness checks or running a quarterly review.
- references/quality-and-troubleshooting.md — common pitfalls, the best-practice checklist, the troubleshooting table, and the success-criteria bar. Read before shipping a runbook.
Scope & Limitations
This skill covers:
- Generating deployment, incident response, database maintenance, scaling, and monitoring runbooks from codebase analysis
- Stack detection for common CI/CD platforms (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins), databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB), and hosting providers (Vercel, Fly.io, Kubernetes, AWS)
- Staleness detection automation and quarterly review processes
- Escalation path templates with severity-based routing
This skill does NOT cover:
- Automated execution of runbook steps — it generates documentation, not orchestration (see
ci-cd-pipeline-builderfor automated pipelines) - Infrastructure provisioning or Terraform/Pulumi code generation (see
migration-architectfor schema migration tooling) - Observability stack setup such as Prometheus rules, Grafana dashboards, or alert definitions (see
observability-designerfor monitoring infrastructure) - Security incident response or vulnerability remediation playbooks (see
skill-security-auditorfor security-focused analysis)
Integration Points
| Skill | Integration | Data Flow |
|---|---|---|
ci-cd-pipeline-builder | Runbook deployment steps align with pipeline stages | Pipeline config feeds into deployment runbook generation; runbook rollback steps reference pipeline rollback triggers |
observability-designer | Monitoring runbook references alert rules and dashboards | Observability outputs (alert names, dashboard URLs) are embedded in runbook VERIFY and Monitor steps |
migration-architect | Database maintenance runbook uses migration tooling conventions | Migration file paths and commands flow into the database runbook template; rollback steps mirror migration rollback commands |
release-manager | Release process triggers runbook execution checkpoints | Release tags and changelogs feed into runbook staleness checks; release gates reference runbook pre-deployment checklists |
env-secrets-manager | Runbook commands reference env vars managed by secrets tooling | Secret names and vault paths flow into runbook env var references; rotation schedules inform runbook update cadence |
changelog-generator | Post-deployment runbook steps cross-reference changelog entries | Changelog diffs help identify which runbook steps need re-verification after a release |