incident-comms-drafter

name	incident-comms-drafter
description	Draft clear internal and customer-facing incident communications, timeline summaries, status updates, holding replies, and post-incident follow-ups. Use when Codex needs to support incident response communication without inventing root cause, over-promising fixes, or sending unreviewed high-risk updates.

Incident Comms Drafter

Use this skill when the team needs communication clarity during or after an operational incident.

Best Fit

This skill is strongest for:

• incident update drafting
• internal status summaries
• customer-safe holding replies
• timeline normalization
• post-incident follow-up drafts

Start Here

Collect:

• what is confirmed
• what is suspected but unconfirmed
• who is affected
• current severity
• who approves external updates
• next known checkpoint

Workflow

1. separate confirmed facts from hypotheses
2. identify the audience: internal team, leadership, customers, vendors, or partners
3. draft the shortest useful update for that audience
4. keep the next checkpoint visible

Default Rules

• never invent root cause
• never promise resolution time unless the source says it
• avoid technical detail that outruns certainty
• keep external updates approval-gated

Common Output Patterns

Internal update

Return:

• current impact
• confirmed facts
• active investigation status
• next checkpoint
• owner if known

Customer-safe update

Return:

• acknowledgement
• current impact in plain language
• what the team is doing
• next update timing if known

Post-incident follow-up

Return:

• what happened
• customer impact
• status now
• follow-up action or prevention note

Reference Use

• references/incident-update-patterns.md for in-incident messaging
• references/approval-boundaries.md for internal versus external review rules
• references/post-incident-follow-up.md for post-resolution communication structure

Example Requests

• "Use $incident-comms-drafter to draft an internal incident update and a customer-safe holding message."
• "Use $incident-comms-drafter to turn these logs and notes into a clean timeline and post-incident follow-up."