incident-commander

name	incident-commander
description	Use when handling production incidents, classifying severity, reconstructing timelines, writing postmortems, generating communication templates, or building incident response playbooks. Provides automated severity scoring, RCA frameworks (5 Whys, Fishbone, Bow Tie), and structured PIR generation.
license	MIT + Commons Clause
metadata	{"version":"1.1.0","author":"borghei","category":"engineering","domain":"incident-response","tier":"POWERFUL","updated":"2026-04-02T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["incident-response","severity-classification","rca","postmortem"],"python-tools":"incident_classifier.py, severity_classifier.py, timeline_reconstructor.py, incident_timeline_builder.py, pir_generator.py, postmortem_generator.py","tech-stack":"python, json, markdown"}

Incident Commander

The agent classifies incident severity, reconstructs timelines from heterogeneous event sources, and generates structured post-incident reviews with root cause analysis and action items.

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Quick Start

# Classify an incident (JSON or stdin)
echo '{"description": "Database connections timing out", "affected_users": "80%", "business_impact": "high"}' \
  | python scripts/incident_classifier.py --format text

# Multi-dimensional severity scoring
python scripts/severity_classifier.py incident.json --format markdown

# Reconstruct timeline with phase detection and gap analysis
python scripts/timeline_reconstructor.py --input events.json --detect-phases --gap-analysis --format markdown

# Build structured timeline with MTTD/MTTR metrics
python scripts/incident_timeline_builder.py incident_data.json --format markdown

# Generate Post-Incident Review
python scripts/pir_generator.py --incident incident.json --rca-method fishbone --action-items --format markdown

# Generate postmortem with benchmark comparisons
python scripts/postmortem_generator.py incident_data.json --format markdown

Tools Overview

Tool	Input	Output
incident_classifier.py	Incident description JSON	Severity level, response teams, communication templates
severity_classifier.py	Incident data with impact/signals	Multi-dimensional score across 5 weighted dimensions
timeline_reconstructor.py	Timestamped events array	Chronological timeline with phases and gap analysis
incident_timeline_builder.py	Incident + events JSON	Timeline with MTTD/MTTR, phase distribution, comms templates
pir_generator.py	Incident data + optional timeline	PIR document with RCA (5 Whys, Fishbone, Timeline, Bow Tie)
postmortem_generator.py	Incident + resolution + action items	Postmortem with benchmarks, factor analysis, coverage gaps

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Workflow 1: Incident Response (Detection to Resolution)

Step 1 -- Classify severity.

python scripts/severity_classifier.py incident.json --format json

The agent scores across five dimensions: revenue impact (25%), user scope (25%), data/security risk (20%), service criticality (15%), blast radius (15%).

Severity	Definition	Response Time	Comms Cadence
SEV-1	Complete outage, data loss, security breach	15 min	Every 15 min
SEV-2	Partial degradation, >25% users affected	30 min	Every 30 min
SEV-3	Single feature affected, workaround available	2 hours	At milestones
SEV-4	Cosmetic, dev/test only, no user impact	Next business day	Standard cycle

Validation checkpoint: Severity classification includes confidence score and recommended escalation path.

Step 2 -- Establish command.

The Incident Commander:

• Assigns within 5 min (SEV-1) or 30 min (SEV-2)
• Creates war room and incident tracking ticket
• Sends initial notification using generated template
• Coordinates between technical teams and stakeholders
• Shields responders from external distractions

Step 3 -- Investigate and mitigate.

The agent generates targeted investigation commands based on the affected service:

kubectl get pods -n production -l app=<service>
kubectl logs -l app=<service> --tail=100
helm history <service> -n production

Decision framework for SEV-1/SEV-2:

• Bias toward action over analysis
• Prefer rollbacks to risky fixes under pressure
• Document every decision for later review
• Consult SMEs but do not block on them

Step 4 -- Communicate.

The agent generates three communication templates per severity:

1. Internal notification -- technical details, response team, war room link
2. Executive summary -- business impact, ETA, leadership actions required
3. Customer communication -- impact scope, what is being done, next update time

Validation checkpoint: All stakeholders notified within committed timeframes.

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Workflow 2: Post-Incident Review

Step 1 -- Reconstruct the timeline.

python scripts/timeline_reconstructor.py --input events.json --detect-phases --gap-analysis --format markdown

The agent accepts events from logs, alerts, Slack messages, and deployment systems. Each event needs a timestamp and description. Optional fields: source, type, actor, severity.

Supported phases: detection, declaration, escalation, investigation, mitigation, communication, resolution.

Step 2 -- Perform root cause analysis.

python scripts/pir_generator.py --incident incident.json --timeline timeline.json --rca-method five_whys --action-items

Available RCA methods:

Method	Best For
five_whys	Linear causal chains, quick analysis
fishbone	Multi-category analysis (People, Process, Technology, Environment)
timeline	Identifying missed decision points and delays
bow_tie	Barriers analysis, prevention and mitigation controls

Step 3 -- Generate action items.

The agent categorizes action items as: immediate_fix, process_improvement, monitoring_alerting, documentation, training, architectural, tooling.

Each action item includes: title, owner, priority, deadline, success criteria, and dependencies.

Step 4 -- Validate postmortem quality.

python scripts/postmortem_generator.py incident_data.json --format json

The agent checks:

• Every contributing factor has at least one action item (coverage gap detection)
• Action items have quality scores (0-100) based on specificity
• MTTD/MTTR benchmarked against industry standards
• Missing actions suggested for uncovered themes

Validation checkpoint: Zero coverage gaps. All P0 action items have owners and deadlines within 48 hours.

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Workflow 3: Escalation Management

Technical escalation path:

Level	Role	SEV-1 Trigger	SEV-2 Trigger
L1	On-call engineer	Immediate	15 min
L2	Senior engineer / Team lead	30 min	1 hour
L3	Engineering Manager / Staff	45 min	2 hours
L4	Director / CTO	1 hour	4 hours

Business escalation:

Severity	Duration	Escalate To
SEV-1	Immediate	VP Engineering
SEV-1	30 min	CTO + Customer Success VP
SEV-1	1 hour	CEO + Full Executive Team
SEV-2	2 hours	VP Engineering
SEV-2	4 hours	CTO

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Anti-Patterns

1. Individual blame in postmortems -- focus on system failures. "Why did the process allow this?" not "Why did Alice do this?"
2. Skipping PIR for SEV-2 -- every SEV-1 and SEV-2 gets a postmortem within 3 business days.
3. Action items without owners -- every item needs a specific person and deadline.
4. Deploying fixes under pressure without validation -- validate fixes before declaring resolution; plan for secondary failures.
5. Communication gaps -- provide updates even when there is no new information.

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
Classifier assigns SEV1 to minor issues	Description keywords trigger high severity without impact data	Provide affected_users percentage and business_impact fields
Timeline shows "No valid events found"	Timestamps in unsupported format or missing timestamp key	Use ISO-8601, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, or Unix epoch
PIR produces shallow 5 Whys	Incident data lacks detail	Enrich input with affected_services, customer_impact; supply timeline via --timeline
Postmortem marks all action items invalid	Missing required fields	Each action item needs title, owner, priority, deadline
Severity score seems too low	Flat description without structured impact data	Provide full schema with impact, signals, context keys

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References

Guide	Path
Incident Response Framework	references/incident-response-framework.md
Severity Matrix	references/incident_severity_matrix.md
Communication Templates	references/communication_templates.md
RCA Frameworks Guide	references/rca_frameworks_guide.md
SLA Management	references/sla-management-guide.md

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Integration Points

Skill	Integration
senior-devops	Monitoring alerts feed timeline; runbook templates inform playbooks
senior-secops	Security incidents auto-escalate to SEV-1; breach indicators trigger SecOps response
release-orchestrator	Deployment events feed timeline; rollback data informs release gates
senior-architect	Architectural root causes escalate to architecture review
code-reviewer	PIR action items route to code review workflows

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Last Updated: April 2026 Version: 1.1.0