Incident Lifecycle Context (ILC-001)

Use this skill when you are building or reviewing incident lifecycle automation (initiate → remediate → close-out → post-mortem) and need consistent, discoverable Phase 2 patterns.

When to Use

• •Adding or updating incident workflows that extend BaseBlueprint
• •Propagating incident metadata through GoldenContext
• •Implementing HITL approval gates via Temporal signals/queries
• •Wiring Slack interactive approvals to waiting workflows

Quick-start checklist (do this in order)

• •Ensure your workflow is started with memo keys:
  • •golden.context (GoldenContext)
  • •golden.securityContext (SecurityContext)
• •If creating an incident:
  • •Set incident_id, incident_severity, and incident_started_at early
  • •Set incident_channel when a Slack channel is created/known
  • •Persist pagerduty_incident_id / statuspage_incident_id when created
• •For sensitive actions:
  • •Use waitForApproval(...) and include a clear reason
  • •Prefer severity-driven timeout via getApprovalTimeoutForSeverity(...)
  • •Notify Slack using notifySlackChannel (usually incident_channel)
• •Execute work through capabilities (not bespoke side-effect code):
  • •Use executeById(capId, input, ...)

GoldenContext incident fields (canonical contract)

Incident metadata is carried in GoldenContext (workflow memo key: golden.context) and is the shared substrate for:

• •Workflow orchestration decisions (severity, SLA, approval timeout)
• •Notifications (Slack, PagerDuty, Statuspage)
• •Audit context (trace/correlation IDs and incident IDs)

Fields

Defined in packages/core/src/context/golden-context.ts:

• •incident_id: Unique incident identifier (e.g., INC-2026-001)
• •incident_severity: P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 (IncidentSeverity)
• •incident_title: Human-readable summary/title
• •incident_channel: Slack channel ID used for incident comms
• •pagerduty_incident_id: PagerDuty incident correlation ID
• •statuspage_incident_id: Statuspage incident correlation ID
• •incident_started_at: ISO timestamp when incident started
• •impacted_services: List of impacted service names

Helper utilities

Use packages/core/src/context/incident-context.ts helpers to create and manage incident context:

• •generateIncidentId({ sequence, year?, prefix? })
• •createIncidentGoldenContext(baseContext, incident)
• •extractIncidentContext(ctx) / hasIncidentContext(ctx)
• •updateIncidentContext(ctx, updates)
• •getApprovalTimeoutForSeverity(severity)

Context propagation (workflow → capability → integrations)

Source of truth: workflow memo

In workflow code, BaseBlueprint reads from Temporal workflow memo:

• •GOLDEN_CONTEXT_MEMO_KEY = "golden.context" (for GoldenContext)
• •SECURITY_CONTEXT_MEMO_KEY = "golden.securityContext" (for initiator identity)

BaseBlueprint.executeById(...) requires GoldenContext to be present in memo, because it is passed to capabilities as ctx for consistent policy/telemetry.

Incident context propagation pattern

When a workflow “enters incident mode”, it should:

• •Generate/set incident_id and incident_severity
• •Persist correlation IDs (pagerduty_incident_id, statuspage_incident_id) as they become available
• •Prefer storing incident comms channel (incident_channel) so downstream steps can notify/update deterministically

Determinism + layering (WCS alignment)

• •Workflow logic must remain deterministic:
  • •Use this.now, this.uuid(), and this.sleep(...) wrappers (no raw Math.random, setTimeout)
  • •Do not perform network I/O directly in workflow code
• •Side effects belong in capabilities and activities:
  • •Use executeById(...) for capability execution (it forwards GoldenContext + trace)
  • •Slack notifications for approvals are done through ApprovalNotificationActivity (not direct Slack API calls from workflow)

HITL approval gate pattern (Temporal signals/queries)

Harmony’s Phase 2 HITL pattern is provided by:

• •packages/core/src/wcs/approval-signal.ts (signal/query contract + Slack Block Kit helpers)
• •BaseBlueprint.waitForApproval(...) (state machine + deterministic waiting + optional Slack notification)

How it works (high level)

• •The workflow registers handlers for:
  • •approvalSignal (signal name: approval)
  • •approvalStateQuery (query name: approvalState)
• •The workflow waits via condition() until approved/rejected or timeout.
• •The approval decision payload (ApprovalSignalPayload) is stored in workflow-local state for auditability and UI querying.

Using waitForApproval()

In a blueprint, call:

await this.waitForApproval({
  reason: 'Destructive remediation requires approval',
  requiredRoles: ['sre', 'ops-lead'],
  timeout: '30m',
  notifySlackChannel: 'C0123456789',
});

Notes:

• •If requiredRoles is non-empty, ApprovalSignalPayload.approverRoles must include at least one required role for the signal to be accepted.
• •Severity-based defaults are available via getApprovalTimeoutForSeverity(severity) (see docs/incidents/severity-definitions.md for the operational policy table).

Important: role-gating + Slack current behavior

Today, slack-interactive-handler.ts sends approval signals with approverRoles: [] (there is a TODO to fetch roles). That means:

• •If you set requiredRoles on waitForApproval(...), Slack approvals will be ignored (no matching roles).
• •Until Slack role mapping is implemented, prefer either:
  • •requiredRoles: [] for Slack-driven approvals, or
  • •Console/API-driven approvals where roles are populated.

Slack interactive approvals (end-to-end)

Slack message composition

Use createApprovalBlocks(...) to create a consistent Slack Block Kit message:

• •Header → reason section → metadata fields → action buttons → optional context
• •Buttons are stable contracts:
  • •APPROVAL_ACTION_IDS.APPROVE = "approval_approve"
  • •APPROVAL_ACTION_IDS.REJECT = "approval_reject"
  • •The button value MUST be the Temporal workflowId

Slack callback handler

The console server integration handler:

• •packages/apps/console/server/integrations/http/slack-interactive-handler.ts

Pattern:

• •Parse the interactive payload
• •Identify approval action by action_id
• •Read workflowId from button value
• •Send approvalSignal to that workflow via Temporal client
• •Acknowledge within 3 seconds

Security note:

• •Apply createSlackVerificationMiddleware(signingSecret) to prevent forged callbacks.

Testing guidance (TDD-aligned)

• •Incident context helpers have unit tests:
  • •packages/core/src/context/incident-context.test.ts
• •Approval signal/query contracts have unit tests:
  • •packages/core/src/wcs/approval-signal.test.ts
• •When changing behavior (new fields, new approval states, new invariants), write a failing test first and only then implement.

References

• •docs/incidents/severity-definitions.md
• •docs/integrations/openapi-specs.md
• •docs/adr/ADR-002-incident-management.md
• •packages/core/src/context/golden-context.ts
• •packages/core/src/context/incident-context.ts
• •packages/core/src/wcs/approval-signal.ts
• •packages/core/src/wcs/base-blueprint.ts (see waitForApproval)
• •packages/apps/console/server/integrations/http/slack-interactive-handler.ts