Automation handover and recovery worksheet

Could another person safely take over?

A workflow is hard to hand over when only its builder knows where requests arrive, who owns access or what a failed step means. This worksheet records those decisions so a different operator can inspect, pause and recover a bounded workflow.

It is an editable Markdown document with a blank version, one filled fictional example and a recovery rehearsal. Save a copy, open it in a text editor and replace the brackets. No signup is required.

Version 1.0.0 · reviewed 8 October 2026 · MIT licence. Read the complete worksheet.

Write down decisions, not just tool names.

Use actual names for your process. A role label such as “administrator” is not enough if nobody has accepted it. Leave unknowns visible until the responsible person resolves them.

Try a handover with the fictional starter.

The filled example uses Northstar Plumbing and fictional operators Morgan and Riley. They are not Fireflax staff or support contacts. It describes the offline enquiry starter 1.0.0, with one local file and no connected systems or credentials.

1. Initialize the starter and submit the fictional New job fixture. Inspect its owner, draft and review state.
2. Use the explicit failure command, then pause. Check that the blocked record and reviewed text remain.
3. Try restoring while paused. It must refuse the action without changing the state.
4. Resume, restore and inspect again. The record must return to review with its previous approval cleared.
5. Read the draft, approve it again and verify one completed local record. Record who rehearsed it, the version and the actual result.

The author’s retained automated rehearsal checks those transitions. It does not fill in your operator’s acceptance. The browser demo has no CLI pause command and loses its state when reset or reloaded; do not interchange these operating instructions.

Reset is not the same as undo.

The sample’s reset deletes a local rehearsal file. In a connected workflow, removing an internal task does not unsend an email, cancel every external booking or reverse an update in another system. Record each external effect and its actual reversal or correction process separately.

Keep the record useful after the handover.

Fireflax repository maintainers maintain this versioned template; it does not establish an individual support assignment. For your workflow, agree an actual maintenance owner and next review date. Recheck the worksheet when rules, permissions, tools or responsible people change.

This public worksheet supports a discussion and rehearsal. A live implementation still needs accepted scope, access, tests and delivery responsibilities. It is not a customer-specific operating agreement.