Support Runbook

Support Runbook Generator

Produce a single .docx document a support or on-call engineer reaches for during their shift — how to check system health, where the logs are, what to do when something breaks, and who to escalate to. Deployment and rollback procedures belong in the companion operations-deployment-guide skill — cross-reference it rather than duplicating.

Sections (in this order)

Cover page, Version History, Document Approval, Revision Log, and TOC are automatic — your sections array starts at "1. Monitoring".

Diagram Policy

Applies to the .docx path only — Markdown embeds Mermaid source directly instead of rendering anything (see "Output Format" below).

Prefer a real Mermaid diagram — rendered via mmdc and embedded with B.diagramImage() — over diagramPlaceholder(), but only once you have concrete structure to draw (real names, not "TBD"). Read references/diagram-generation.md when you're actually about to render one — it has the full build order, the bundled config (assets/mermaid-config.json), the exact mmdc flags, and token-saving tips. Skip it entirely if this document ends up needing no diagrams.

Missing Information Policy

Never invent alert thresholds, troubleshooting steps, or escalation paths you have no basis for — a fabricated "resolution" in a runbook could make an actual incident worse. Use toBeCompleted("...") for sections you lack real input for, explaining what's needed, and still generate everything else.

Output Format

Ask the user which output format they want, unless they've already said so in this request (e.g., "as a docx", "in markdown," "just give me an .md file") — a quick single-choice question is enough, don't block on it otherwise:

• Word document (.docx) — the default assumption if the person hasn't specified and their context suggests a formal deliverable. Follow "Using the builder" below.

• Markdown (.md) — no script needed, write the file directly. Use these conventions so it stays structurally equivalent to the docx version:

  • Front matter: instead of a cover page, open with the title as an # heading, the project name as an italic subtitle line, then a metadata table instead of separate Version History / Approval / Revision Log tables:

    # Support Runbook
    *Acme Order Platform*
    
    | Field | Value |
    |---|---|
    | Version | 0.1 |
    | Author | Jane Doe |
    | Date | 2026-07-19 |
    | Status | Draft |
    | Approved By | Jane Doe (Tech Lead) |
    

  • Headings: #/##/###/#### matching the same section levels used in the table above — don't flatten everything to one level, that's what keeps the document skimmable and consistent with the docx version.

  • Tables: standard Markdown tables.

  • Diagrams — unlike the .docx path, don't render or embed an image here. Write the actual Mermaid source directly in a fenced code block; GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, and most modern Markdown viewers render mermaid code blocks natively, so this is a real diagram, not a placeholder:

    ```mermaid
    flowchart TD
        A[Client] --> B[API Gateway]
        B --> C[Order Service]
        C --> D[(Database)]
    ```
    

    Only fall back to a text placeholder if you don't yet have concrete enough detail to draw something real (mirrors toBeCompleted above):

    > 📊 **DIAGRAM PLACEHOLDER — TO BE COMPLETED**
    > Not enough detail yet to draw the System Architecture Diagram — need
    > the actual component names and how they connect.
    

  • "To be completed" callout — same blockquote treatment:

    > ⚠️ **TO BE COMPLETED**
    > Explanation of what input is needed to fill this in.
    

  • Save as Support_Runbook.md instead of Support_Runbook.docx.

Workflow

Ask the output format first (see "Output Format" above). For Markdown, skip straight to writing the file using those conventions — the numbered steps below describe the .docx path.

1. Gather what's available — monitoring/alerting config, past incident history, on-call tooling — or ask directly.
2. Draft each section as data using the builder functions below. Prefer real past incidents for the Troubleshooting Guide over generic examples.
3. Build with scripts/docx_builder.js.
4. Skip PDF conversion by default — docx_builder.js is already tested and hardened (table widths and text alignment are enforced at the library level), so routine generations don't need a re-render just to confirm it worked. Only convert to PDF and view it if the user explicitly asks for visual verification, or if something about this generation is unusual (e.g., a new kind of content the library hasn't handled before, or a reported rendering problem). When you do need it: soffice --headless --convert-to pdf <file>.docx (or libreoffice --headless ...), then pdftoppm -jpeg -r 100 <file>.pdf page and view the images.
5. Save to /mnt/user-data/outputs/Support_Runbook.docx (or .md if that's the chosen format) and present it.

Using the builder (for the .docx path)

This library requires the docx npm package. Before running any script, check it's available with node -e "require('docx')"; if that fails, install it with npm install docx in the working directory first — don't assume it's pre-installed, since that varies by environment.

const B = require("./scripts/docx_builder.js");

const sections = [
  B.h1("1. Monitoring"),
  B.para("Dashboards are hosted in Grafana; PagerDuty manages on-call rotation and escalation."),

  // Prefer B.diagramImage(path, {caption}) with a real mmdc render when
  // possible (see "Diagram Policy" above) — diagramPlaceholder() is the fallback:
  B.diagramPlaceholder({
    name: "Monitoring Architecture",
    purpose: "Show how metrics flow from services to dashboards and alerts.",
    recommendedContent: ["Services", "Prometheus", "Grafana", "PagerDuty", "Slack"],
  }),

  B.h1("5. Troubleshooting Guide"),
  B.table(["Symptom", "Likely Cause", "Resolution"],
    [["Service returns 503", "Downstream dependency down", "Check dependency health dashboard; if down, page the owning team"]],
    [3000, 3000, 3200]),

  B.h1("8. Escalation Contacts"),
  B.toBeCompleted("On-call rotation and escalation contacts weren't provided — ask for the PagerDuty schedule link or current on-call roster."),
];

await B.buildDocument("/mnt/user-data/outputs/Support_Runbook.docx", {
  docLabel: "Support Runbook",
  title: "Support Runbook",
  subtitle: "Acme Order Platform",
  versionHistory: [["0.1", "2026-07-19", "Jane Doe", "Initial draft"]],
  approvers: [["Jane Doe", "Support Lead", "", ""]],
  revisionLog: [],
  sections,
});

Available functions: h1/h2/h3/h4, para, bullets, table(headers, rows, widths), pageBreak, toBeCompleted(explanation), diagramPlaceholder({name, purpose, recommendedContent, notes}), and buildDocument(path, options). Always use heading functions for titles so Word's Table of Contents and Navigation Pane work correctly.

Success Criteria

A support or on-call engineer who has never seen this system before should be able to triage a real incident using only this document — check health, find the right logs, recognize a known symptom, and know who to escalate to.