Incident Report template

Canonical template for the Incident Report format.

# Incident Report: [Incident Name or ID]

## Status

[Investigating | Identified | Monitoring | Resolved] - [date and time, timezone]

## Summary

[One to two sentences: what service was affected, what customers experienced, and when.]

## Impact

- Services affected: [list]
- Customers affected: [scope or percentage, if known]
- Duration: [start time] to [end time] ([total duration])

## Timeline

- [time] - [event]
- [time] - [event]
- [time] - Incident declared resolved

## Root Cause

[Plain-language explanation of what caused the failure. Accessible to a non-engineer.
Avoid internal jargon, team names, and speculative detail.]

## Resolution

[What was done to restore service.]

## Next Steps

- [Specific, committed remediation action]
- [Expected completion or owner, if known]