Failure Mode Scanner

Failure Mode Scanner

Goal

Surface the most likely and most damaging failure modes before action.

This skill does not replace full incident planning. It identifies where the plan can break and what deserves a guardrail, rollback, or monitor.

When To Use

• before risky implementation or rollout
• when hidden downside may be larger than visible upside
• when safety planning needs concrete failure paths

Scope Boundaries

In scope:

• identify likely failure modes
• rank by severity and plausibility
• connect failure modes to mitigations

Out of scope by default:

• exhaustive threat models
• full remediation runbooks

Workflow

1. State the intended change or action.
2. Identify key assumptions and dependencies.
3. Name the likely failure modes.
4. Rank by probability and impact.
5. Map each serious mode to a mitigation, guardrail, or rollback need.

Output Contract

1. planned_action
2. failure_modes
3. highest_risk_modes
4. severity_logic
5. mitigations_needed
6. recommended_followup
7. next_step

Guardrails

• Do not fill the list with low-value hypotheticals.
• Prefer realistic operational failures over dramatic edge cases.
• Keep the scan decision-relevant.