Hire an AI service outage update writer

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A fact ledger: each fact marked confirmed, being investigated or unknown
• A first notice, progress updates and a recovery message for each audience
• An owner and next-update time for each message
• A plain-words edit that keeps every uncertainty
• A summary and one next step

How it does the job well

• Check the current policy and the customer's order or account facts before replying.
• Answer the actual question in the first two lines, then explain.
• Match the customer's tone. Acknowledge the problem once, without grovelling.
• Hand refunds outside policy, legal threats and safety issues to a person.

Mistakes it avoids

• Inventing facts, figures, dates, quotes or completed actions.
• Passing on an earlier step's output without checking what it says.
• Hiding a failed check to finish the run.
• Promising refunds, dates or fixes the policy does not allow.
• Copy-paste replies that ignore what the customer said.
• Closing a ticket without a clear next step.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: Your checkout has been down for twenty minutes and customers are emailing.

• step-01-incident-runbook-writer.md. The fact ledger, who owns each update and when the next update is due.
• step-02-stakeholder-update-writer.md. First notice, progress and recovery drafts for each audience.
• step-03-plain-english-editor.md. The same messages in plain words, with every uncertainty kept.
• Hand-back summary. Files saved, facts still unconfirmed, checks not run and one next step.

How the work is checked

• Messages separate known facts from what is being investigated and avoid unsupported recovery estimates.
• Nothing is posted or sent. The user posts each message after sign-off.
• Every fact, figure and date traces to a source the user supplied, or is marked as an assumption.
• Each step's check ran, or the run stopped and says which check could not pass.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Incident runbook writer. Sets owners, update times and the fact ledger from your confirmed facts. Hands step 2 the full ledger (confirmed, being investigated, unknown), the owner of each message and each next-update time.
• Stakeholder update writer. Writes the first notice, progress and recovery messages for each audience. Hands step 3 the drafts only. Step 3 edits the words and does not get the ledger.
• Plain English editor. Edits for clarity and keeps every condition and promise as written. Hands back the final messages.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id prepare-a-service-outage-communication-pack only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/prepare-a-service-outage-communication-pack/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• What is affected and who (from your monitoring or team lead)
• The timeline so far: when it started and what you have done
• Facts you have approved for customers
• Your communication rules: who signs off, channels, tone
• Existing message templates (optional)
• The owner of each update (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• Your status page's past posts
• The names of your sign-off people
• Your customer support channels
• Service promises you have made to key customers

Tools and access

• Any good chat AI that reads files, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini: It must hold the facts, your rules and any templates together.
• Any good chat AI: It only needs your notes pasted in. A tracker connection is a bonus, not a need.
• Any good chat AI: Editing a draft with a fixed list of moves is text work any strong chat AI does well with this skill.
• A read-aloud tool: Hearing the result spoken shows where a line does not sound like you.

Functions and deliverables

• Service outage update writer: Share confirmed impact, service status and approved facts. Get first, progress and recovery message drafts with a source record.
  • A fact ledger: each fact marked confirmed, being investigated or unknown
  • A first notice, progress updates and a recovery message for each audience
  • An owner and next-update time for each message
  • A plain-words edit that keeps every uncertainty
  • A summary and one next step
• Incident runbook writer: Name your service. Get a runbook with severity levels, first steps, fixes and who to tell.
  • A severity table
  • Step-by-step response stages
  • Commands and checks to run
  • Escalation paths
  • Message templates
  Source: sickn33.
• Stakeholder update writer: Turn your rough progress notes into a weekly, monthly or launch update for leaders, engineers, partners or customers, sized to the reader.
  • A draft update sized to your reader, ready to paste
  • A status colour with a one-line reason
  • Each risk with a plan or an owner
  • Each decision with options and a recommendation
  • A list of facts you still need to add
  • A version for a second reader (optional)
  Source: Anthropic.
• Plain English editor: Paste a draft and get it back in plain English, with every cut explained and a read-aloud check. Edit stiff emails, reports and pages.
  • The edited text in plain words
  • A list of every cut or swap, with its reason
  • The point of the piece in one sentence
  • Questions where a fact was missing
• Brand profile builder: Share your website. Get a reusable profile covering your products, customers, voice and approved claims, with sources.
  • A folder of eight plain files, from a start file for your AI to a claims list and a change log
  • A tag on every fact, and every claim marked approved, pending or banned
  • A two-sentence diagnosis of your biggest gap, and a list of what's missing and who can answer it
  • A short slice for your next step, if you name one
• George Orwell: Rewrite a memo, report or announcement in plain words using George Orwell’s recorded approach. Cut padding and reveal what vague labels hide.
  • Your problem worked on the way George Orwell would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in George Orwell's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step
• Kurt Vonnegut: Review plain writing or a story’s shape using Kurt Vonnegut’s recorded ideas. Cut clutter, trace changes in fortune and question the perfect plan.
  • Your problem worked on the way Kurt Vonnegut would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Kurt Vonnegut's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• Your checkout has been down for twenty minutes and customers are emailing.
• Support needs words for a status page and a reply template.
• You want the messages ready before the next incident, not during it.
• The incident is over and you owe customers a recovery note.

Limits to check before starting

• You want to find the cause. Use AWS incident investigation planner, or the Outage incident leader.
• You want to learn from an outage afterwards. Use Incident learning and follow-up planner.
• You need to reply to one customer. Use the Angry customer reply writer.
• Nothing is confirmed yet. Wait until you know what is affected, or send 'we are looking into it'.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the workflow pack and add it to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini.
• Paste what you have confirmed, the timeline and your communication rules.
• Say: follow the workflow file, label every fact and do not guess a recovery time.
• Check the fact ledger before the messages. Move any fact you cannot show to 'being investigated'.
• Have your sign-off person read each message, then post it yourself.
• Run it again for each update with the new facts.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/prepare-a-service-outage-communication-pack for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.