Runbook

anthropics/runbook

Create or update an operational runbook for a recurring task or procedure. Use when documenting a task that on-call or ops needs to run repeatably, turning tribal knowledge into exact step-by-step commands, adding troubleshooting and rollback steps to an existing procedure, or writing escalation paths for when things go wrong.

629 tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

23273

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill runbook

The instruction itself

5 sections, as written by the author

/runbook

> If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.

Create a step-by-step operational runbook for a recurring task or procedure.

Usage

/runbook $ARGUMENTS

Output

## Runbook: [Task Name]
**Owner:** [Team/Person] | **Frequency:** [Daily/Weekly/Monthly/As Needed]
**Last Updated:** [Date] | **Last Run:** [Date]

### Purpose
[What this runbook accomplishes and when to use it]

### Prerequisites
- [ ] [Access or permission needed]
- [ ] [Tool or system required]
- [ ] [Data or input needed]

### Procedure

#### Step 1: [Name]

[Exact command, action, or instruction]

**Expected result:** [What should happen]
**If it fails:** [What to do]

#### Step 2: [Name]

[Exact command, action, or instruction]

**Expected result:** [What should happen]
**If it fails:** [What to do]

### Verification
- [ ] [How to confirm the task completed successfully]
- [ ] [What to check]

### Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---------|-------------|-----|
| [What you see] | [Why] | [What to do] |

### Rollback
[How to undo this if something goes wrong]

### Escalation
| Situation | Contact | Method |
|-----------|---------|--------|
| [When to escalate] | [Who] | [How to reach them] |

### History
| Date | Run By | Notes |
|------|--------|-------|
| [Date] | [Person] | [Any issues or observations] |

If Connectors Available

If ~~knowledge base is connected:

Search for existing runbooks to update rather than create from scratch
Publish the completed runbook to your ops wiki

If ~~ITSM is connected:

Link the runbook to related incident types and change requests
Auto-populate escalation contacts from on-call schedules

Tips

Be painfully specific — "Run the script" is not a step. "Run python sync.py --prod --dry-run from the ops server" is.
Include failure modes — What can go wrong at each step and what to do about it.
Test the runbook — Have someone unfamiliar with the process follow it. Fix where they get stuck.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take anthropics/runbook from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.