Managing Blameless

Blameless Management Skill

Manage and analyze incidents, retrospectives, SLOs, and reliability insights in Blameless.

API Conventions

Authentication

All API calls use the Authorization: Bearer $BLAMELESS_API_KEY header. Never hardcode tokens.

Base URL

https://api.blameless.com/api/v1

Core Helper Function

#!/bin/bash

bl_api() {
    local method="$1"
    local endpoint="$2"
    local data="${3:-}"

    if [ -n "$data" ]; then
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer $BLAMELESS_API_KEY" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            "https://api.blameless.com/api/v1${endpoint}" \
            -d "$data"
    else
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer $BLAMELESS_API_KEY" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            "https://api.blameless.com/api/v1${endpoint}"
    fi
}

Output Rules

• TOKEN EFFICIENCY: Extract only needed fields with jq
• Target <=50 lines per script output
• Never dump full API responses

Discovery Phase

List Active Incidents

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Active Incidents ==="
bl_api GET "/incidents?status=active&limit=25" \
    | jq -r '.incidents[] | "\(.created_at[0:16])\t\(.severity)\t\(.status)\t\(.title[0:60])"' \
    | column -t

echo ""
echo "=== Incident Types ==="
bl_api GET "/incident-types" \
    | jq -r '.incident_types[] | "\(.name)\t\(.description[0:50])"' | column -t

List SLOs

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== SLO Overview ==="
bl_api GET "/slos?limit=25" \
    | jq -r '.slos[] | "\(.name)\t\(.target)%\t\(.current_value)%\t\(.status)"' \
    | column -t

echo ""
echo "=== SLOs At Risk ==="
bl_api GET "/slos?limit=50" \
    | jq -r '.slos[] | select(.current_value < .target) | "\(.name)\ttarget:\(.target)%\tcurrent:\(.current_value)%"' | column -t

Analysis Phase

Retrospective Summary

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Recent Retrospectives ==="
bl_api GET "/retrospectives?limit=15&sort=-created_at" \
    | jq -r '.retrospectives[] | "\(.created_at[0:16])\t\(.incident.title[0:40])\t\(.status)"' \
    | column -t

echo ""
echo "=== Pending Follow-ups ==="
bl_api GET "/follow-ups?status=open&limit=15" \
    | jq -r '.follow_ups[] | "\(.priority // "none")\t\(.title[0:60])\t\(.assignee.name // "unassigned")"' \
    | column -t

Incident Detail

#!/bin/bash
INCIDENT_ID="${1:?Incident ID required}"

echo "=== Incident Details ==="
bl_api GET "/incidents/${INCIDENT_ID}" \
    | jq '.incident | {id, title, status, severity, type: .incident_type.name, created_at, resolved_at, summary: .summary[0:200]}'

echo ""
echo "=== Timeline ==="
bl_api GET "/incidents/${INCIDENT_ID}/events?limit=15" \
    | jq -r '.events[] | "\(.created_at[0:16])\t\(.event_type)\t\(.description[0:60])"' | column -t

Output Format

• Use tab-separated columns with column -t
• Limit lists to 15-25 items
• Show summaries before details

Anti-Hallucination Rules

1. NEVER assume resource names — always discover via CLI/API in Phase 1 before referencing in Phase 2.
2. NEVER fabricate metric names or dimensions — verify against the service documentation or --help output.
3. NEVER mix CLI commands between service versions — confirm which version/API you are targeting.
4. ALWAYS use the discovery → verify → analyze chain — every resource referenced must have been discovered first.
5. ALWAYS handle empty results gracefully — an empty response is valid data, not an error to retry.

Counter-Rationalizations

Common Pitfalls

• Retrospective workflow: Retrospectives go through stages (draft, in-review, published)
• SLO windows: SLOs use rolling or calendar windows -- check window type before comparing
• Follow-ups vs tasks: Follow-ups are post-incident commitments tracked separately from incident tasks
• Rate limits: Respect API rate limiting headers
• Pagination: Use limit and offset parameters