{"slug":"runbook-step-check","name":"Runbook Step Check","version":"1.0.0","updated_at":"2026-10-19T06:01:08.514Z","use_when":"Checks ONE operational runbook (a numbered procedure for a deploy, a failover, a rotation or a recovery) step by step for the five things a person at three in the morning needs and writers forget - an owner, an expected duration, a visible signal that the step worked, a way back, and someone to escalate to - and lists only the steps that miss something, one line per step with fixed codes for what is missing, or exactly No findings. It accepts a success signal written in other words, an owner or an escalation contact stated once for the whole runbook, and a read-only step that needs no way back, and it never rewrites the runbook or adds steps. Use to review a runbook before an on-call rotation relies on it, after an incident that showed a step was unclear, or to gate a pull request that edits a procedure document.","not_for":"Writing a runbook from nothing, judging whether a command is correct, finding missing steps or a better order, or analysing the causes of an incident. It reads one pasted runbook, lists the gaps per step, and never rewrites the text.","languages":["en"],"tags":["runbook","on-call","incident-response","operations","procedure-review","sre"],"category":"business","category_url":"https://aiskills402.com/categories/business","keywords":["operational runbook","success signal","on-call rotation","procedure document"],"faq":[{"q":"Which gaps does it look for in each step?","a":"Five things: who does the step, how long it should take, a visible success signal, a way back, and whom to call. Each gap is a fixed code on a line headed by the step number. Steps that give everything stay out of the answer, so the list is only the work still to do."},{"q":"Does a signal have to use certain words?","a":"No. Whatever the reader can look at and compare counts, for example a status code on a health page, an expected number, or a log entry. Only a bare instruction to make sure it is fine, with nothing to look at, is reported as a missing signal."},{"q":"Which steps may skip a way back?","a":"A step that only reads, like a query or a dashboard check, needs none. A step that changes something must say how to undo it, or say plainly that it cannot be undone and warn before it; that plain statement counts as a stated way back."},{"q":"What did the test of this skill cover?","a":"The trial used a password rotation with two incomplete steps, a database failover missing an owner and a way back, and a complete queue restart. One run per model and runbook, on Sonnet and on Haiku, returned the expected lines every time."}],"examples":[{"lang":"en","model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","input_excerpt":"Runbook: rotate the reporting database password\nOwner of every step: platform on-call. If a step fails twice, page the database lead in the #db-oncall channel.\n\n1. Count the open connections of the reporting user with the usual status query. This takes about 1 minute. You should see fewer than 20.\n2. Check the replica lag with the status query (read-only). About 1 minute.…","output_excerpt":"Step 3 — NO-SIGNAL, NO-ROLLBACK — nothing to look at to confirm the new password is set, and nothing says how to restore the old password\nStep 5 — NO-DURATION, NO-SIGNAL — no expected time or time limit for the restart, and nothing to check that the service picked up the new secret"}],"page_url":"https://aiskills402.com/skills/runbook-step-check","markdown_url":"https://aiskills402.com/skills/runbook-step-check.md","image_url":"https://cdn.aiskills402.com/og/skills/runbook-step-check/06bef162.png","related_url":"https://api.aiskills402.com/v1/skills/runbook-step-check/related","purchases_count":null,"tested":{"date":"2026-10-19","strong":{"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5 (Claude Code alias \"sonnet\")","verdict":"Right on all 3 cases, read by hand. On a password-rotation runbook it listed only the two steps with gaps, step 3 without a signal and a way back and step 5 without a time and a signal, and left out the read-only checks and the step whose signal was written in other words. On a failover runbook it listed the step with no owner and the step with no way back, and left out the promotion step that says plainly it cannot be undone. On a complete runbook it answered exactly No findings."},"weak":{"model":"claude-haiku-5-5 (Claude Code alias \"haiku\")","verdict":"Right on all 3 cases, read by hand: the same two lines per planted runbook with the same codes, none of the safe look-alikes listed, no escalation or owner line for the runbooks that state them once, and exactly No findings on the complete runbook."},"note":"Light test: three cases (two planted, one clean), one run per model; no comparison without the skill. The three runbooks were written by us; each planted one carries safe look-alikes (a success signal written in other words, read-only steps without a way back, a step that says it cannot be undone, an owner and an escalation contact stated once), and neither planted case has a comment pointing at the gap. Facts come from public incident-response guidance, read on 19 October 2026; there are no owner-measured facts.","report_url":null},"price_usd":"0.01","price_micro":10000,"size_bytes":7260,"sha256":"b85f677ba68672d54b38334d89201cf1a317bff7c46351da8b5e6533817004ba","outline":["The answer","The five things and their codes","How to read the runbook","Rules","Work in this order","Short example"],"license":{"summary":"Perpetual, non-exclusive; use and modify for yourself incl. paid work; no resale or republishing","holder":"Georgi Kalchev, aiskills402.com","url":"https://aiskills402.com/docs#license"},"buy_url":"https://api.aiskills402.com/v1/skills/runbook-step-check/file","redownload_url_template":"https://api.aiskills402.com/v1/purchases/{token}","mcp_tool":null,"payment":{"protocol":"x402","scheme":"exact","asset":"USDC","selling":true,"network":"base","network_caip2":"eip155:8453","pay_to":"0x8e37022edcf0f21cf3c9f93fee9d4d32519f36f4","facilitator":"cdp"},"seo_title":"Runbook Step Check for On-Call Teams","seo_description":"Finds the steps of a runbook that lack an owner, a time, a visible signal, a way back or an escalation contact. Pay $0.01 once, in USDC.","versions":[{"version":"1.0.0","date":"2026-10-19","changelog":"# Changelog\n\n## 1.0.0 — 2026-10-19\n\nFirst release, written in the light-test trial of 19 October 2026 (three cases, price $0.01). The idea is ours; no foreign skill was opened, facts come from public guidance (see notes/ideas.md). Output: one line per finding with a fixed code, or exactly `No findings.`\n\nTest: three cases written by hand (two planted, each with a safe look-alike, one clean control), one run on Claude Sonnet and one on Claude Haiku, no run without the skill, no iteration on the skill text after the runs. `test/control.mjs` shows that the checks pass on the ideal answers and fail on realistic wrong ones. See `test-summary.json` for the verdicts read by hand.\n"}]}