sre-methodology

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

1. Observe — what is the symptom right now?
2. Hypothesize — what could explain it?
3. Test — run one command that distinguishes hypotheses
4. 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.