Knowledge-work-plugins 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.
install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/operations/skills/runbook" ~/.claude/skills/anthropics-knowledge-work-plugins-runbook && rm -rf "$T"
manifest:
operations/skills/runbook/SKILL.mdsource content
/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
from the ops server" is.python sync.py --prod --dry-run - 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.