vibe-rollback-plan

Documents rollback procedures before making risky changes. Covers what's changing, verification steps, rollback procedures, and blast radius assessment.

vibe-rollback-plan

The time to plan a rollback is BEFORE you need one.

When to Use This Skill

  • Database migrations (especially destructive ones)
  • API breaking changes
  • Infrastructure changes (networking, permissions, DNS)
  • Large dependency upgrades
  • Any change where "undo" isn't obvious

When NOT to Use This Skill

  • Safe, easily reversible changes (adding a new file, adding a feature flag)
  • Changes with automated rollback (CI/CD with rollback built in)
  • Local development changes

Steps

  1. Document the change:

    • What is being changed?
    • Why is it being changed?
    • What systems are affected?

  2. Define success criteria:

    • How do we know the change worked?
    • What metrics to watch?
    • How long to monitor before declaring success?

  3. Assess blast radius:

    • What breaks if this fails?
    • Which users/services are affected?
    • Is there data loss risk?

  4. Write rollback procedure:

    • Step-by-step commands to reverse the change
    • Expected time to rollback
    • Who needs to be notified?

  5. Pre-change checklist:

    • Rollback procedure documented
    • Rollback tested (if possible)
    • Monitoring in place
    • Team notified
    • Backup taken

Output Format

Rollback Plan: [Change Name]

Change: [Description] Risk Level: Low / Medium / High / Critical Blast Radius: [What's affected] Estimated Recovery Time: [Time to rollback]

Success Criteria

  1. [How to verify the change worked]

Rollback Procedure

# Step 1: [Description]
[command]
# Step 2: [Description]
[command]

Pre-Change Checklist

  • Backup taken
  • Rollback tested
  • Monitoring active
  • Team notified