# Write an on-call handoff note

Summarizes your on-call shift into a handoff the next engineer can act on: open issues, watch items, and context.

- Topic: Software Development
- Framework: RTF
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Write, Summarize, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/write-an-on-call-handoff-note

## Prompt

```text
Help me write a handoff note at the end of my on-call shift.

**Shift dates:** [START - END]
**Pages and alerts received:** [LIST OR PASTE FROM ALERTING TOOL]
**Incidents and what was done:** [SUMMARY OF EACH]
**Anything still open or unresolved:** [ISSUES, TEMPORARY FIXES, MANUAL WORKAROUNDS IN PLACE]
**Upcoming risky events:** [DEPLOYS, MIGRATIONS, TRAFFIC PEAKS, VENDOR MAINTENANCE]
**My raw notes:** [PASTE ANYTHING ELSE]

Write the handoff with these sections:
1. **TL;DR:** 2-3 lines on how the shift went and the single most important thing to know.
2. **Open issues:** each with current status, what to watch for, next step, and links placeholder [LINK].
3. **Temporary changes in place:** anything manually scaled, disabled, silenced, or patched, with when and how to revert. Mark these clearly; they're the most dangerous to forget.
4. **Noisy or unhelpful alerts:** which fired without real problems, with a suggestion to tune or delete each.
5. **Upcoming events:** dates, times, and what to do if they go wrong.
6. **Follow-up tickets to file:** postmortems, fixes, runbook gaps.

Keep it scannable and under 400 words. Don't drop anything from my notes that the next person would need; if something is ambiguous, list it under "Clarify before handoff."
```

## What to fill in

- START - END
- LIST OR PASTE FROM ALERTING TOOL
- SUMMARY OF EACH
- ISSUES, TEMPORARY FIXES, MANUAL WORKAROUNDS IN PLACE
- DEPLOYS, MIGRATIONS, TRAFFIC PEAKS, VENDOR MAINTENANCE
- PASTE ANYTHING ELSE
- LINK

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.