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DeliveryOperations5 min read
The runbook every automated system needs
Automation runs fine until it doesn't. The difference between a five-minute fix and a five-hour scramble is whether there's a runbook.
Automated systems are great precisely because nobody thinks about them — until one fails at an awkward time and nobody remembers how it works. The fix for that isn't more cleverness; it's a runbook: the written answer to 'what do I do when this breaks?'
The knowledge can't live in one head
When the only person who understands a system is unavailable, a small failure becomes a crisis. A runbook moves that knowledge out of someone's head and into a place anyone can use under pressure.
What a runbook contains
- What the system does and what normal looks like.
- How to tell what's wrong — where to look, what the signals mean.
- Step-by-step recovery for the common failure modes.
- Who to escalate to when the steps don't work.
Automation you can't recover when it fails isn't an asset. It's a liability with good uptime. Write the runbook.