Ops — Post-Deploy Observability

Unified observability guidance for production services. Auto-detects context from project files or accepts explicit mode.

Usage

/ops                  # Auto-detect from project signals
/ops logging          # Explicit: structured logging setup
/ops metrics          # Explicit: RED metrics + Prometheus instrumentation
/ops dashboard        # Explicit: Grafana/DataDog/CloudWatch dashboards
/ops alerting         # Explicit: SLO-based alerting policy
/ops overview         # Cross-mode sequencing guide

Workflow

Step 1: Determine Context

Parse $ARGUMENTS for explicit mode. If no arguments, run context detector:

DETECTED=$(bash "$HOME/.claude/skills/ops/lib/context-detector.sh")

Step 2: Show Relevant Guidance

Based on detected or explicit mode, use progressive disclosure:

Level 1 — Summary (default, ~20 lines): Read and present the summary template for the detected mode. This is the entry point.

Level 2 — Patterns (on request, ~60-80 lines): When the user asks for more detail, "show me patterns", code examples, or "Don't/Do/Best" style guidance, read the patterns template.

Level 3 — Full SOP (future): Not yet available. If the user asks for a complete reference, offer to dive into patterns and answer specific questions.

Step 3: Handle Multiple Contexts

If context-detector returns multiple modes (e.g., "logging,metrics"):

• Show summary for each detected mode
• Ask: "Which area do you want to dive deeper into?"

Step 4: No Context Detected

If detection returns "none" and no explicit mode was given:

• Read and show templates/overview.md
• Let the user choose which mode to start with

Template Locations

Summary Templates (~20 lines each — L1 default)

Mode	File
logging	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/logging/summary.md
metrics	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/metrics/summary.md
dashboard	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/dashboard/summary.md
alerting	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/alerting/summary.md

Patterns Templates (~60-80 lines each — L2 on request)

Mode	File
logging	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/logging/patterns.md
metrics	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/metrics/patterns.md
dashboard	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/dashboard/patterns.md
alerting	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/alerting/patterns.md

Reference Templates

Mode	File
overview	~/.claude/skills/ops/templates/overview.md

Progressive Disclosure Rules

1. Always start at L1 — never dump 300+ lines unprompted
2. Read templates on demand — use the Read tool to load templates, don't memorize content
3. User drives depth — "show patterns", "show me the code", "how do I set up X" triggers L2
4. Cross-reference, don't duplicate — if user asks about PII scrubbing in logging, cite /security operations rather than reproducing the PIIScrubber code here

Relationship to Other Skills

• /security operations: Covers secrets management, deployment security, incident response. /ops covers observability implementation. They complement each other — run both for a new service.
• /infrastructure-setup: Sets up the base stack (Docker, DB, API layer). /ops adds the observability layer on top.
• /implementation: After implementing a feature, consider /ops metrics to add domain-specific counters.

Examples

Auto-detected metrics context (prometheus.yml found):

→ context-detector returns "metrics" → Read and show templates/metrics/summary.md → User: "show me how to add custom counters" → Read and show templates/metrics/patterns.md

Explicit logging request:

User: /ops logging → Read and show templates/logging/summary.md

No context, overview:

User: /ops → context-detector returns "none" → Read and show templates/overview.md

Cross-reference on PII:

User asks about PII in logging patterns → Cite /security operations for the PIIScrubber implementation → Do NOT reproduce the full class here