laurigates Service Decommission Documentation Generator
When to Use This Skill
| Use this skill when... | Use docs-generate instead when... |
|---|---|
| Retiring or shutting down a deployed service and need a complete teardown checklist | Producing API reference, README, or CHANGELOG content from code annotations |
| Capturing infrastructure, DNS, secrets, and billing cleanup steps at deployment time while context is fresh | Drafting general project documentation that will be maintained alongside development |
Generating a service-specific DECOMMISSION-<service>.md with environments, stakeholders, and rollback steps |
Synchronising existing documentation with the current codebase (use docs-sync) |
Generate a comprehensive decommission checklist for ${1:-[SERVICE_NAME]} to be created at deployment time when all context is fresh.
Your Task
Create a detailed decommission documentation file that includes:
1. Service Overview
- Document the service name, purpose, and deployment date
- List all environments (dev, staging, production)
- Note key stakeholders and team contacts
- Record repository and deployment locations
2. Infrastructure Resources Checklist
Create a checklist covering:
- Cloud resources (compute instances, containers, serverless functions)
- Storage resources (databases, object storage, file systems, volumes)
- Network resources (load balancers, DNS records, CDN configurations)
- Security resources (SSL certificates, API keys, service accounts, IAM roles)
- Monitoring and alerting (dashboards, alert rules, log aggregations)
- CI/CD pipelines and automation jobs
- Scheduled tasks and cron jobs
3. Data Management Checklist
- Identify all data stores and their locations
- Create data backup procedures and retention policies
- Document data migration or archival requirements
- Plan for data deletion in compliance with policies
- Verify backup completion and integrity
- Document legal/compliance data retention requirements
4. Access and Security Checklist
- Revoke service accounts and API credentials
- Remove IAM roles and permissions
- Rotate any shared secrets or keys
- Update security groups and firewall rules
- Remove OAuth applications and integrations
- Audit and remove user access
- Update password vaults and secret managers
5. DNS and Networking Checklist
- Document all DNS records (A, CNAME, TXT, MX, etc.)
- Plan DNS record removal or updates
- Update load balancer configurations
- Remove or update CDN configurations
- Document any hardcoded URLs or endpoints
- Notify dependent services of endpoint changes
6. Integration and Dependencies Checklist
- Identify all upstream services (services this one depends on)
- Identify all downstream services (services depending on this one)
- Document API contracts and integration points
- Notify dependent teams of decommission timeline
- Plan migration path for dependent services
- Update service discovery and registries
7. Monitoring and Observability Cleanup
- Remove monitoring dashboards
- Delete alert rules and notification channels
- Clean up log aggregation and retention
- Remove tracing and APM configurations
- Archive historical metrics if needed
- Update status pages and documentation
8. Documentation and Knowledge Transfer
- Archive technical documentation
- Update architecture diagrams
- Remove or archive runbooks and SOPs
- Update team wikis and knowledge bases
- Document lessons learned
- Archive incident reports and postmortems
9. Financial and Administrative
- Cancel subscriptions and recurring charges
- Remove cost allocation tags
- Update budget and capacity planning
- Archive invoices and billing records
- Transfer domain registrations if needed
10. Final Verification
- Verify all resources are deleted or archived
- Confirm no unexpected charges appear
- Validate dependent services are functioning
- Complete decommission sign-off with stakeholders
- Archive this decommission documentation
Output Format
Create a markdown file named DECOMMISSION-${1:-[SERVICE_NAME]}.md with:
- Clear section headers
- Checkboxes for each action item
- Specific resource identifiers (not generic placeholders)
- Timeline and responsible parties for each major section
- Links to relevant documentation and tools
- Emergency rollback procedures
Important Notes
- This documentation should be created at deployment time when context is fresh
- Include actual resource identifiers, not examples
- Keep it updated as the service evolves
- Store it in the service repository for easy access
- Review and update quarterly or after major changes