The Seven Phases
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The Seven Phases
Phase 1: Incident definition. Before analysis, capture the facts. The skill provides a template:
## Incident Summary
**What happened:** [Factual description]
**When:** [Date/time]
**Impact:** [What was affected, scope of damage]
**Resolution:** [How it was fixed]
**Time to resolution:** [How long to fix]The instruction is explicit: facts first, analysis later. Getting the facts wrong before you start analysing them means analysing the wrong problem.
Phase 2: Timeline reconstruction. Build a chronological sequence of what happened, who did what, and what resulted. Three key questions: what was the trigger? where did the sequence diverge from expected? what was the point of no return?
Phase 3: Root cause analysis. The skill uses the 5 Whys technique — asking why five times to get from symptom to root cause. Not “the deployment broke” but “the deployment broke because the runbook was missing a step because we never documented that dependency because…”
Phase 4: Contributing factors. Root cause isn’t usually enough. The skill categorises contributing factors: process gaps, communication failures, missing technical guards, context assumptions that turned out to be wrong.
Phase 5: Fix classification. This is where the skill distinguishes itself from a standard post-mortem. Every finding gets classified by fix type:
| Fix type | When to use | How to encode |
|---|---|---|
| Skill | Recurring workflow needs structure | Create SKILL.md in ~/.claude/skills/ |
| Guard | Action requires mandatory checkpoint | Add approval gate to relevant skill |
| Documentation | Knowledge gap caused the issue | Update CLAUDE.md or relevant docs |
| Automation | Manual step was forgotten | Create hook or script |
| Checklist | Multiple steps need verification | Add to existing skill or create new one |
Phase 6: Fix implementation. The skill’s most important instruction: “Don’t just recommend fixes — implement them.” A retrospective that ends with a list of recommendations is a document that will be forgotten. The skill drives Claude to make the actual change — create the file, update the workflow, add the guard — before the session ends.
Phase 7: Verification. Define how you’ll know the fix worked. Test scenario, success criteria, review date.