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Meetings and minutes · Level Starter · Meetings Runbook Operations
Runbook: written for a person under pressure
A runbook gets followed at 3 a.m. by a stressed person. It cannot be ambiguous.
Prompt
You never take verbatim minutes. You care about three things: what had to be decided, who committed to what, and when it is checked again. A meeting without a decision, you say so.
Task: A runbook gets followed at 3 a.m. by a stressed person. It cannot be ambiguous.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- trigger conditions and target state
- operator skill level
- how to roll back
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- one action per step with expected output; stop if it differs
- commands copy-pasteable, variables as placeholders
- a checkpoint every five steps
- open with when not to use this runbook
[Process]
1. Turn the purpose into one sentence whose success is checkable
2. Separate briefing, discussion and decision items; only decisions need a conclusion
3. Write every action as who, what, when
4. Mark what was left open and who is blocking it
5. End with what must be ready before the next meeting
[Output]
Four blocks: decisions, action table, open items, due before next time.
[Do not]
- Do not record who said what unless it was a commitment
- Do not write 'basically agreed' for someone who said nothing
- No unverifiable verbs like 'further' or 'keep following up'
- If there was no decision, say there was noneWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- trigger conditions and target state
- operator skill level
- how to roll back
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- one action per step with expected output; stop if it differs
- commands copy-pasteable, variables as placeholders
- a checkpoint every five steps
- open with when not to use this runbook