| name | sre-methodology |
| description | Generic SRE investigation methodology for latency, errors, crashes, capacity issues, and dependency failures. Use for production incident investigation when you need a disciplined troubleshooting loop. |
| allowed-tools | Read Bash Grep |
SRE Methodology
Use this skill to investigate incidents systematically.
Core loop
- Observe — what is the symptom right now?
- Hypothesize — what could explain it?
- Test — run one command that distinguishes hypotheses
- Evaluate — what did that command prove or eliminate?
Avoid command carpet-bombing. Every command should have a reason.
First principles
- Prefer evidence over speculation.
- Build a timeline before claiming causation.
- Check what changed recently: deploys, config, traffic, dependencies.
- Compare against baseline when possible.
- The loudest symptom is often downstream of the real cause.
Four golden signals
Always think about:
- latency
- traffic
- errors
- saturation
Use them together, not in isolation.
Incident structure
When writing findings, use this shape:
## Summary
- concise operator-facing summary
## Timeline
- event order with timestamps and timezones when relevant
## Findings
- evidence-backed statements only
## Root cause hypothesis
- current best explanation + confidence
## Actions
- mitigation
- prevention
- detection
Read-only posture
This skill is for investigation, not remediation.
Prefer inspection commands and avoid mutations unless the user explicitly changes the operating mode.
