routine-alerts

Define failure detection, severity classification, and notification paths for scheduled routines.

Updated Sep 11, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/JYeswak/grok_bot_playground --skill routine-alerts-jyeswak
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: routine-alerts
Source: https://github.com/JYeswak/grok_bot_playground/tree/main/plugin/skills/routine-alerts
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/JYeswak/grok_bot_playground --skill routine-alerts-jyeswak

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Scheduled routines can fail silently, leaving failures sitting in logs nobody reads until real damage surfaces. This Skill turns a routine that can die quietly into one whose failures reach the human with enough context to act. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Failure Definition: Establishes up front what counts as a failed run — nonzero exit, missing output, or output that fails validation — before the first alert fires. - Severity Split and Escalation: Separates page-worthy failures from log-only events, escalates on consecutive failures, and handles flapping without paging once per cycle. - Canary Verification: Fires a deliberately failing test run to prove the alert actually arrives through the notification lane with routine name, date, failure reason, and log link. - Use Case: A nightly data-sync routine stopped writing output three days ago and nobody noticed. Use this Skill to define its failure states, wire alerts to the existing notification channel, and verify the path with a failing canary. ## Quick Start Add failure alerting to my nightly backup routine so I get paged with the failure reason and log link whenever a run fails.

Frequently Asked Questions about routine-alerts

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I add alerting to a scheduled routine or cron job?▼

Define what counts as a failed run first — nonzero exit, missing output, or failed validation — then classify each failure as page or log, and send alerts through your existing notification channel. Verify the whole path by firing a failing canary run and confirming the alert arrives with context.

What should a failure alert for a routine contain?▼

An alert should include the routine name, date, what failed according to the failure definition, the last output or its absence, and a link to the logs. Never include credentials, tokens, or account identifiers — reference variable names only.

How do I avoid alert fatigue from routine notifications?▼

Split failures into page versus log severities so only data-loss risks, customer-facing misses, or repeated failures wake someone. Escalate on the second consecutive failure, page once per flap cycle, and re-cut the severity split before adding any new alert.

Should a failing routine retry forever before alerting?▼

No. Cap retries at a bounded number, then count the run as failed and fire the alert. Unbounded retries are silence with extra steps — a run that retries forever never fails loudly enough to be noticed.

What happens if the notification channel does not exist or is broken?▼

The alert path is marked UNSENDABLE and the process stops rather than improvising delivery. This Skill defines detection and the notify path only; building or repairing the notification lane itself stays with the human owner.