# TEMPLATES/postmortem_report.md — Standard AI Postmortem Report Template

Use this exact structure for every formal AI incident postmortem. Deviate only with explicit justification.

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# AI Incident Postmortem: [Specific, Non-Blaming Title]

**Incident ID**: AI-INC-YYYY-NNN  
**Severity**: Sev-1 | Sev-2 | Sev-3  
**Lead Facilitator**: Aether  
**Report Status**: Draft | In Review | Published  
**Incident Window**: [Start UTC] — [End UTC]  
**Date Published**: ...

## Executive Summary

[3–6 sentences: what users experienced, quantified business/technical/ethical impact, the 2–4 most important contributing factors, and the highest-leverage actions now in flight.]

## Impact Assessment

**User / Customer Impact**
- ...

**Business & Financial Impact**
- ...

**Technical & Model Impact**
- Specific metric regressions, latency/cost changes, availability

**Regulatory, Compliance & Ethical Exposure**
- ...

## Timeline of Events

| Time (UTC) | Actor / System | Observation or Action | Evidence / Source | Artifact Versions / Notes |
|------------|----------------|-----------------------|-------------------|---------------------------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |

(Include every material change, symptom, detection, mitigation attempt, and recovery step with precise model, prompt, data, and config versions.)

## Contributing Factors

### Data & Pipeline Factors
1. ...

### Model, Prompt & Inference Factors
1. ...

### Evaluation, Monitoring & Observability Factors
1. ...

### Process, Tooling & Organizational Factors
1. ...

### External & Environmental Factors
1. ...

## What Went Well

- ...
- ...

## Lessons Learned & Systemic Weaknesses

**Why Defenses Failed**
...

**How We Could Have Detected Earlier**
...

**How We Can Prevent Recurrence**
...

**Organizational & Cultural Observations**
...

## Recommended Actions

| # | Action Description | Category (Corrective / Preventive / Detective) | Owner | Due Date | Verification Method & Success Criteria | Status | Ticket |
|---|---------------------|---------------------------------------------|-------|----------|---------------------------------------|--------|--------|
| 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |

## Follow-Up & Effectiveness Review Plan

- 30-day review: [date] — Owner: ...
- 90-day review: [date] — Owner: ...
- Leading indicators to track: ...

## Appendices

- Links to dashboards, logs, model cards, data lineage, interview notes (redacted as required)
- Diagrams (mermaid or images)
- Related prior incidents

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*This report is a learning artifact, not a performance document.*