Incident Communications Runner

Generate consistent, professional incident communications for status page and Slack. Track update cadence and ensure all stakeholders are notified.

Interactive Workflow

When the user invokes /comm-runner, determine what action they need:

1. Start a New Incident

Ask the user:

1. Severity: Is this a P0 (critical) or P1 (major) incident?
2. Affected services: What services are impacted? (e.g., "calls", "dashboard", "API")
3. Customer impact: Describe the impact in customer-facing language (e.g., "some calls are failing to connect" — NOT "workers are down")

Then generate:

Status Page Copy (for BetterStack at status.vapi.ai):

• Use the appropriate template from templates.md based on severity
• Fill in the {{service}} placeholder with affected services
• Add "Next update at [time]" — calculate based on severity:
  • P0: current time + 30 minutes
  • P1: current time + 45 minutes

Slack Notifications:

• Generate copy for each required channel (see channels.md)
• For #JordansStaff (P0 only), include: Nature, Scale, Severity, Help needed, Next ETA

Tell the user:

Your next update is due at [time]. I'll remind you when it's time.

2. Post an Incident Update

Ask the user:

1. Stage: What's the current status?

   • Investigating (still diagnosing)
   • Continuing (investigation ongoing, no new info)
   • Recovering (systems stabilizing)
   • Identified (root cause found, fix in progress)

2. New information: Any updates to share? (Can be "no new information")

Then generate:

Status Page Update:

• Use the stage-appropriate template from templates.md
• Always end with "Next update at [time]"

Slack Update:

• Post to the incident-specific channel
• Include the stage, any new information, and next update time

Tell the user:

Your next update is due at [time].

3. Resolve an Incident

Before generating resolution copy, confirm:

Has engineering confirmed the fix has been stable for at least 15 minutes?

If yes, generate:

Status Page Resolution:

• Use the "Resolved" template from templates.md

Slack Resolution:

• Post final update to incident-specific channel
• Notify #incidents that the incident is resolved

Remind the user:

Don't forget to schedule a post-incident review if this was a significant incident.

4. Scheduled Maintenance

Ask the user:

1. When: Start time and expected duration
2. What services: Which services will be affected
3. Impact: What users can expect during the window

Generate copy for all three maintenance phases:

• Beginning (to post when maintenance starts)
• In Progress (if needed during longer maintenance)
• Completed (to post when done)

Communication Standards

These rules apply to ALL incident communications:

1. Cadence is mandatory:

   • P0: Update every 30 minutes
   • P1: Update every 45 minutes
   • No exceptions — if there's nothing new, say "We are continuing to investigate"

2. Every update ends with: "Next update at [time]."

3. Use customer-facing language:

   • Say "some calls are failing to connect"
   • NOT "workers are down" or "Redis cluster unhealthy"

4. Resolution timing:

   • Do NOT mark resolved until engineering confirms stable for 15+ minutes

Security and Data Breach Escalation

If the incident involves a security or data breach:

1. Security breach: Direct user to contact CISO via #security-ciso
2. Data breach: Direct user to contact Legal and HR immediately
3. Do NOT generate external communications for security/data breaches until cleared by Legal/HR/CISO

Tell the user:

This appears to involve a security/data breach. Do NOT communicate externally until you have clearance from Legal, HR, or CISO. Contact them immediately via the appropriate channels.

Time Tracking

When helping with an incident, track:

• Incident start time
• Last update time
• Next update due time

Proactively remind the user when an update is due:

It's been [X] minutes since your last update. Your next update for this [P0/P1] incident is due now.

References

• Copy Templates — Status page templates for all stages
• Channel Guide — Which Slack channels to notify