Runbooks

Firewatch supports two runbook types:

• Internal runbooks store Markdown in Firewatch.
• External runbooks link to an existing procedure at an absolute URL.

Both types can be associated with one or more services and suggested from an incident.

Internal runbooks

The editor supports Markdown including headings, lists, links, tables, and images. You can paste, drop, or select PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP images up to the limit shown in the editor.

Image bytes use the configured asset provider:

• self-hosted Compose stores them in the persistent firewatch-runbooks volume; and
• Firewatch Cloud operates durable object storage for uploaded images.

The database stores the asset metadata and runbook content. Back up both the database and filesystem image volume in a self-hosted deployment.

External runbooks

Use an external runbook when another system is the authoritative source. The link opens outside Firewatch, so its availability and access control remain the responsibility of that system.

Do not put temporary signed URLs or credentials in the runbook URL.

Service associations and suggestions

Associate a runbook with the services it can help recover. Firewatch ranks suggestions using that association and matching terms from the incident and runbook content.

Associations improve discovery but do not grant access outside Firewatch and do not cause a procedure to execute automatically.

Archiving

Archiving removes a runbook from active use without deleting its historical record. The runbook list can show active, archived, or all runbooks.