Platform SRE Runbooks That Drive Calm Incidents

Runbooks are often written once and forgotten. To truly support SRE teams, they must reflect reality, stay easy to discover, and evolve after every incident. Here is how we keep them useful.

Structure For Fast Scan

Runbooks begin with quick context: the service impacted, primary contacts, and recent changes. Next comes a decision tree that maps the most common failure paths to diagnostics and mitigations. Engineers can jump to relevant sections in seconds.

Tie Alerts To Actions

Every alert links to a specific runbook section. We prune alerts that lack actionable steps. During retrospectives, if a runbook entry fails to help, we update or retire it.

Refresh After Every Incident Review

Post-incident reviews include a runbook update checklist. Owners incorporate new learnings within 48 hours, and reviewers spot-check for clarity. Over time, the runbooks become a living knowledge base rather than a static document.