engineering/skills/incident-response/SKILL.md
Run an incident response workflow — triage, communicate, and write postmortem. Trigger with "we have an incident", "production is down", an alert that needs severity assessment, a status update mid-incident, or when writing a blameless postmortem after resolution.
npx skillsauth add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins incident-responseInstall this skill globally with one command. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf.
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If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.
Manage an incident from detection through postmortem.
/incident-response $ARGUMENTS
/incident-response new [description] # Start a new incident
/incident-response update [status] # Post a status update
/incident-response postmortem # Generate postmortem from incident data
If no mode is specified, ask what phase the incident is in.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ INCIDENT RESPONSE │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Phase 1: TRIAGE │
│ ✓ Assess severity (SEV1-4) │
│ ✓ Identify affected systems and users │
│ ✓ Assign roles (IC, comms, responders) │
│ │
│ Phase 2: COMMUNICATE │
│ ✓ Draft internal status update │
│ ✓ Draft customer communication (if needed) │
│ ✓ Set up war room and cadence │
│ │
│ Phase 3: MITIGATE │
│ ✓ Document mitigation steps taken │
│ ✓ Track timeline of events │
│ ✓ Confirm resolution │
│ │
│ Phase 4: POSTMORTEM │
│ ✓ Blameless postmortem document │
│ ✓ Timeline reconstruction │
│ ✓ Root cause analysis (5 whys) │
│ ✓ Action items with owners │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| Level | Criteria | Response Time | |-------|----------|---------------| | SEV1 | Service down, all users affected | Immediate, all-hands | | SEV2 | Major feature degraded, many users affected | Within 15 min | | SEV3 | Minor feature issue, some users affected | Within 1 hour | | SEV4 | Cosmetic or low-impact issue | Next business day |
Provide clear, factual updates at regular cadence. Include: what's happening, who's affected, what we're doing, when the next update is.
## Incident Update: [Title]
**Severity:** SEV[1-4] | **Status:** Investigating | Identified | Monitoring | Resolved
**Impact:** [Who/what is affected]
**Last Updated:** [Timestamp]
### Current Status
[What we know now]
### Actions Taken
- [Action 1]
- [Action 2]
### Next Steps
- [What's happening next and ETA]
### Timeline
| Time | Event |
|------|-------|
| [HH:MM] | [Event] |
## Postmortem: [Incident Title]
**Date:** [Date] | **Duration:** [X hours] | **Severity:** SEV[X]
**Authors:** [Names] | **Status:** Draft
### Summary
[2-3 sentence plain-language summary]
### Impact
- [Users affected]
- [Duration of impact]
- [Business impact if quantifiable]
### Timeline
| Time (UTC) | Event |
|------------|-------|
| [HH:MM] | [Event] |
### Root Cause
[Detailed explanation of what caused the incident]
### 5 Whys
1. Why did [symptom]? → [Because...]
2. Why did [cause 1]? → [Because...]
3. Why did [cause 2]? → [Because...]
4. Why did [cause 3]? → [Because...]
5. Why did [cause 4]? → [Root cause]
### What Went Well
- [Things that worked]
### What Went Poorly
- [Things that didn't work]
### Action Items
| Action | Owner | Priority | Due Date |
|--------|-------|----------|----------|
| [Action] | [Person] | P0/P1/P2 | [Date] |
### Lessons Learned
[Key takeaways for the team]
If ~~monitoring is connected:
If ~~incident management is connected:
If ~~chat is connected:
testing
Reads a forwarded customer email or ticket, pulls order/refund status from PayPal and account history from HubSpot, drafts a tone-matched reply in the owner's writing voice, and can issue a PayPal refund with explicit owner approval. Use when the user says "draft a response," "answer this customer," "where's my order," or "I want a refund."
development
Prepares tax-season materials for small business owners — framed as deliverables for their accountant, not tax advice. Two modes: (1) quarterly estimated tax calculation — pulls YTD net income from QuickBooks and calculates the federal income tax + self-employment tax liability and quarterly payment due; (2) year-end 1099 prep — scans QuickBooks, PayPal, and Stripe for contractors paid over $600, builds a 1099-NEC candidate list with missing W-9 flags, and produces a plain-English summary a CPA can work from directly. Trigger this skill whenever the user mentions: quarterly taxes, estimated tax payment, how much to set aside for taxes, 1099s, 1099-NEC, year-end tax prep, contractor payments, W-9s, or any phrase suggesting they are preparing for a tax deadline or handing materials to an accountant. Also trigger proactively when a user asks about net profit or YTD income in a context that suggests they are worried about their tax bill.
tools
Prepares tax-season materials — quarterly estimated tax calculation or year-end 1099 prep — and produces an accountant handoff packet. Accepts optional mode and year arguments.
tools
The front door to the Small Business plugin. Listens to what the owner needs right now — vague or specific — and routes them to the best skill or slash command for the moment. Also serves as a guide: explains what's available, suggests what to try next, and adapts recommendations based on stored business context. Trigger whenever the owner asks "what can you do," "help me with my business," "what should I focus on," "I don't know where to start," or any open-ended business request that doesn't clearly match a single skill.