Runbooks engineers actually trust
How we write and maintain runbooks that get used during real incidents instead of ignored.
The best runbooks reduce panic, not add to it. We keep ours concise, current, and linked directly from the alerts that need them.
Keep the intro brutally short
- One sentence on the symptom the reader is seeing.
- A single graphic or diagram for orientation.
- The pager rotation responsible for the system.
Standardize the flow
We structure every runbook with the same sections:
- Immediate actions: top three checks that typically resolve the alert.
- Fallback steps: escalation paths, feature flags, and toggles to stabilize traffic.
- Verification: what good looks like in dashboards and logs.
- Cleanup: how to revert mitigations and note the incident.
Keep it living
Each runbook shows its last test date and owner. We schedule quarterly walkthroughs using staging chaos drills so the instructions stay fresh and actionable.
Well-maintained runbooks turn a noisy incident channel into a set of clear, repeatable moves.