Runbook Template

Template Structure

Use this template to document any operational procedure your team needs to execute.

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Runbook: [Procedure Name]

Metadata

Field	Value
Owner	@team or @person
Severity	P1 / P2 / P3
Frequency	On-demand / Daily / Weekly
Last Updated	YYYY-MM-DD

Purpose

One-sentence description of what this runbook achieves and when to use it.

Prerequisites

• Access to [system/tool]
• Permissions: [required roles]
• Alerts/monitoring: [relevant dashboards]

Procedure

Step 1: [Action]

# Command or script to execute

Expected result: Describe what success looks like. Rollback: How to undo this step if something goes wrong.

Step 2: [Action]

# Command or script to execute

Expected result: Describe what success looks like.

Verification

• Check [metric/endpoint] returns [expected value]
• Confirm [log/alert] shows [pattern]
• Notify [stakeholder] that procedure is complete

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Solution
Error X	Y is not running	Restart Y via command
Timeout	Network latency	Retry after 30s

Post-Incident Actions (if applicable)

• Update status page
• Write incident retrospective
• Create follow-up tickets
• Update this runbook if procedure changed

Escalation

If this runbook does not resolve the issue within [timeframe], escalate to:

• L2: @on-call-engineer
• L3: @engineering-manager
• External: [vendor support link/number]

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Best Practices

• Keep it short: One page per routine procedure
• Use checkboxes: Make it easy to follow under pressure
• Include commands: Copy-paste ready scripts
• Test periodically: Run through runbooks during calm periods
• Version control: Store in docs/runbooks/ with your code

Common Anti-Patterns

• Overly long runbooks that no one reads during incidents
• Missing rollback steps
• No escalation path defined
• Outdated contact information
• Assuming context the reader doesn’t have