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Get Started Free →Effective patterns for on-call shift transitions, ensuring continuity, context transfer, and reliable incident response across shifts.
.claude/skills/on-call-handoff-patterns/SKILL.md| Test case | Without → With | Effect | Δ tokens | Δ turns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| case-12 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | — | — |
| case-08 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | — | — |
| case-10 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | — | — |
| case-16 | ✓→✓ | ＝ Same ✓ | — | — |
| case-14 | ✓→✓ | ＝ Same ✓ | — | — |
Effective patterns for on-call shift transitions, ensuring continuity, context transfer, and reliable incident response across shifts.
resources/implementation-playbook.md.| Component | Purpose | |-----------|---------| | Active Incidents | What's currently broken | | Ongoing Investigations | Issues being debugged | | Recent Changes | Deployments, configs | | Known Issues | Workarounds in place | | Upcoming Events | Maintenance, releases |
Recommended: 30 min overlap between shifts
Outgoing:
├── 15 min: Write handoff document
└── 15 min: Sync call with incoming
Incoming:
├── 15 min: Review handoff document
├── 15 min: Sync call with outgoing
└── 5 min: Verify alerting setupmarkdown# On-Call Handoff: Platform Team **Outgoing**: @alice (2024-01-15 to 2024-01-22) **Incoming**: @bob (2024-01-22 to 2024-01-29) **Handoff Time**: 2024-01-22 09:00 UTC --- ## 🔴 Active Incidents ### None currently active No active incidents at handoff time. --- ## 🟡 Ongoing Investigations ### 1. Intermittent API Timeouts (ENG-1234) **Status**: Investigating **Started**: 2024-01-20 **Impact**: ~0.1% of requests timing out **Context**: - Timeouts correlate with database backup window (02:00-03:00 UTC) - Suspect backup process causing lock contention - Added extra logging in PR #567 (deployed 01/21) **Next Steps**: - [ ] Review new logs after tonight's backup - [ ] Consider moving backup window if confirmed **Resources**: - Dashboard: [API Latency](https://grafana/d/api-latency) - Thread: #platform-eng (01/20, 14:32) --- ### 2. Memory Growth in Auth Service (ENG-1235) **Status**: Monitoring **Started**: 2024-01-18 **Impact**: None yet (proactive) **Context**: - Memory usage growing ~5% per day - No memory leak found in profiling - Suspect connection pool not releasing properly **Next Steps**: - [ ] Review heap dump from 01/21 - [ ] Consider restart if usage > 80% **Resources**: - Dashboard: [Auth Service Memory](https://grafana/d/auth-memory) - Analysis doc: [Memory Investigation](https://docs/eng-1235) --- ## 🟢 Resolved This Shift ### Payment Service Outage (2024-01-19) - **Duration**: 23 minutes - **Root Cause**: Database connection exhaustion - **Resolution**: Rolled back v2.3.4, increased pool size - **Postmortem**: [POSTMORTEM-89](https://docs/postmortem-89) - **Follow-up tickets**: ENG-1230, ENG-1231 --- ## 📋 Recent Changes ### Deployments | Service | Version | Time | Notes | |---------|---------|------|-------| | api-gateway | v3.2.1 | 01/21 14:00 | Bug fix for header parsing | | user-service | v2.8.0 | 01/20 10:00 | New profile features | | auth-service | v4.1.2 | 01/19 16:00 | Security patch | ### Configuration Changes - 01/21: Increased API rate limit from 1000 to 1500 RPS - 01/20: Updated database connection pool max from 50 to 75 ### Infrastructure - 01/20: Added 2 nodes to Kubernetes cluster - 01/19: Upgraded Redis from 6.2 to 7.0 --- ## ⚠️ Known Issues & Workarounds ### 1. Slow Dashboard Loading **Issue**: Grafana dashboards slow on Monday mornings **Workaround**: Wait 5 min after 08:00 UTC for cache warm-up **Ticket**: OPS-456 (P3) ### 2. Flaky Integration Test **Issue**: `test_payment_flow` fails intermittently in CI **Workaround**: Re-run failed job (usually passes on retry) **Ticket**: ENG-1200 (P2) --- ## 📅 Upcoming Events | Date | Event | Impact | Contact | |------|-------|--------|---------| | 01/23 02:00 | Database maintenance | 5 min read-only | @dba-team | | 01/24 14:00 | Major release v5.0 | Monitor closely | @release-team | | 01/25 | Marketing campaign | 2x traffic expected | @platform | --- ## 📞 Escalation Reminders | Issue Type | First Escalation | Second Escalation | |------------|------------------|-------------------| | Payment issues | @payments-oncall | @payments-manager | | Auth issues | @auth-oncall | @security-team | | Database issues | @dba-team | @infra-manager | | Unknown/severe | @engineering-manager | @vp-engineering | --- ## 🔧 Quick Reference ### Common Commands
kubectl get pods -A | grep -v Running
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20
psql -c "SELECT count() FROM pg_stat_activity;"
redis-cli FLUSHDB
### Important Links
- [Runbooks](https://wiki/runbooks)
- [Service Catalog](https://wiki/services)
- [Incident Slack](https://slack.com/incidents)
- [PagerDuty](https://pagerduty.com/schedules)
---
## Handoff Checklist
### Outgoing Engineer
- [x] Document active incidents
- [x] Document ongoing investigations
- [x] List recent changes
- [x] Note known issues
- [x] Add upcoming events
- [x] Sync with incoming engineer
### Incoming Engineer
- [ ] Read this document
- [ ] Join sync call
- [ ] Verify PagerDuty is routing to you
- [ ] Verify Slack notifications working
- [ ] Check VPN/access working
- [ ] Review critical dashboardsmarkdown# Quick Handoff: @alice → @bob ## TL;DR - No active incidents - 1 investigation ongoing (API timeouts, see ENG-1234) - Major release tomorrow (01/24) - be ready for issues ## Watch List 1. API latency around 02:00-03:00 UTC (backup window) 2. Auth service memory (restart if > 80%) ## Recent - Deployed api-gateway v3.2.1 yesterday (stable) - Increased rate limits to 1500 RPS ## Coming Up - 01/23 02:00 - DB maintenance (5 min read-only) - 01/24 14:00 - v5.0 release ## Questions? I'll be available on Slack until 17:00 today.
markdown# INCIDENT HANDOFF: Payment Service Degradation **Incident Start**: 2024-01-22 08:15 UTC **Current Status**: Mitigating **Severity**: SEV2 --- ## Current State - Error rate: 15% (down from 40%) - Mitigation in progress: scaling up pods - ETA to resolution: ~30 min ## What We Know 1. Root cause: Memory pressure on payment-service pods 2. Triggered by: Unusual traffic spike (3x normal) 3. Contributing: Inefficient query in checkout flow ## What We've Done - Scaled payment-service from 5 → 15 pods - Enabled rate limiting on checkout endpoint - Disabled non-critical features ## What Needs to Happen 1. Monitor error rate - should reach <1% in ~15 min 2. If not improving, escalate to @payments-manager 3. Once stable, begin root cause investigation ## Key People - Incident Commander: @alice (handing off) - Comms Lead: @charlie - Technical Lead: @bob (incoming) ## Communication - Status page: Updated at 08:45 - Customer support: Notified - Exec team: Aware ## Resources - Incident channel: #inc-20240122-payment - Dashboard: [Payment Service](https://grafana/d/payments) - Runbook: [Payment Degradation](https://wiki/runbooks/payments) --- **Incoming on-call (@bob) - Please confirm you have:** - [ ] Joined #inc-20240122-payment - [ ] Access to dashboards - [ ] Understand current state - [ ] Know escalation path
markdown## Handoff Sync: @alice → @bob 1. **Active Issues** (5 min) - Walk through any ongoing incidents - Discuss investigation status - Transfer context and theories 2. **Recent Changes** (3 min) - Deployments to watch - Config changes - Known regressions 3. **Upcoming Events** (3 min) - Maintenance windows - Expected traffic changes - Releases planned 4. **Questions** (4 min) - Clarify anything unclear - Confirm access and alerting - Exchange contact info
markdown## Pre-Shift Checklist ### Access Verification - [ ] VPN working - [ ] kubectl access to all clusters - [ ] Database read access - [ ] Log aggregator access (Splunk/Datadog) - [ ] PagerDuty app installed and logged in ### Alerting Setup - [ ] PagerDuty schedule shows you as primary - [ ] Phone notifications enabled - [ ] Slack notifications for incident channels - [ ] Test alert received and acknowledged ### Knowledge Refresh - [ ] Review recent incidents (past 2 weeks) - [ ] Check service changelog - [ ] Skim critical runbooks - [ ] Know escalation contacts ### Environment Ready - [ ] Laptop charged and accessible - [ ] Phone charged - [ ] Quiet space available for calls - [ ] Secondary contact identified (if traveling)
markdown## Daily On-Call Routine ### Morning (start of day) - [ ] Check overnight alerts - [ ] Review dashboards for anomalies - [ ] Check for any P0/P1 tickets created - [ ] Skim incident channels for context ### Throughout Day - [ ] Respond to alerts within SLA - [ ] Document investigation progress - [ ] Update team on significant issues - [ ] Triage incoming pages ### End of Day - [ ] Hand off any active issues - [ ] Update investigation docs - [ ] Note anything for next shift
markdown## Post-Shift Checklist - [ ] Complete handoff document - [ ] Sync with incoming on-call - [ ] Verify PagerDuty routing changed - [ ] Close/update investigation tickets - [ ] File postmortems for any incidents - [ ] Take time off if shift was stressful
markdown## Escalation Triggers ### Immediate Escalation - SEV1 incident declared - Data breach suspected - Unable to diagnose within 30 min - Customer or legal escalation received ### Consider Escalation - Issue spans multiple teams - Requires expertise you don't have - Business impact exceeds threshold - You're uncertain about next steps ### How to Escalate 1. Page the appropriate escalation path 2. Provide brief context in Slack 3. Stay engaged until escalation acknowledges 4. Hand off cleanly, don't just disappear
| Case | Status | Duration (ms) | Turns | Tokens | Tool calls | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Without | With | Δ | Without | With | Δ | Without | With | Δ | Without | With | Δ | ||
case-15 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-13 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-22 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-16 | pass→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-12 | fail→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-21 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-08 | fail→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-14 | pass→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-19 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-11 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-17 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-10 | fail→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-01 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-18 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-07 | pass→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-04 | pass→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-03 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-02 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-09 | pass→pass | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-20 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-05 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
case-06 | fail→fail | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
DecimalAI ran this skill against gemini-3.6-flash twice over the same eval suite — once with the skill loaded and once without — and compared the two runs case by case. 22 cases were attempted. The headline lift of +14 percentage points is the difference between those two pass rates over the 22 comparable cases.
The per-case answers from this run were removed by the retention sweep, so the case table below shows the verdicts without the text either arm produced. The counts above were recorded at the time and are unaffected. Answers are now kept for 180 days.
Other measured skills in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.