SRE / Operations Guide

This guide is for you if you manage infrastructure, handle incidents, deploy systems, maintain CI/CD pipelines, or ensure production reliability. SRE and operations engineers have 13+ addressable assets spanning infrastructure as code, incident response, security operations, and deployment automation.

CAUTION

The security agents and prompts referenced in this guide are assistive tools only. They do not replace professional security tooling (SAST, DAST, SCA, penetration testing, compliance scanners) or qualified human review. All AI-generated security plans, security models, risk registers, and incident response runbooks must be reviewed and validated by qualified security professionals before use. AI outputs may contain inaccuracies, miss critical threats, or produce recommendations that are incomplete or inappropriate for your environment. Never treat AI-generated security artifacts as authoritative without independent verification.

Capability Groups

TIP

Install the HVE Core extension from the VS Code Marketplace for the complete active component set with zero configuration.

For selective clone adoption, choose infrastructure-as-code standards, incident response, supply chain security, and investigation components that match your operational responsibilities. Capability groups help you discover related components; they are not independently installable products. See the Installation Guide.

What HVE Core Does for You

1. Activates infrastructure-as-code standards for Terraform, Bicep, Bash scripts, and GitHub Actions workflows automatically
2. Generates incident response runbooks and playbooks for operational scenarios
3. Supports structured investigation of production issues through research workflows
4. Validates dependency pinning and SHA integrity for supply chain security
5. Reviews infrastructure changes against operational best practices
6. Manages Git workflows for infrastructure repositories including merge and rebase operations

Your Lifecycle Stages

NOTE

SRE / Operations engineers primarily operate in these lifecycle stages:

Stage 1: Setup: Configure environments, install tooling, set up infrastructure Stage 3: Product Definition: Define infrastructure requirements and operational specifications Stage 6: Implementation: Build infrastructure, write IaC, configure pipelines Stage 8: Delivery: Deploy infrastructure, validate environments, release changes Stage 9: Operations: Monitor systems, handle incidents, maintain production

Stage Walkthrough

1. Stage 1: Setup. Configure your development environment and install HVE Core tooling using the Getting Started guide. Set up IaC project structure for your infrastructure repository.
2. Stage 3: Product Definition. Define infrastructure requirements, SLOs, and operational contracts. Use the security-planner agent for infrastructure security planning.
3. Stage 3: Product Definition. Run the sssc-planner agent to assess supply chain security of CI/CD pipelines and deployment infrastructure.
4. Stage 6: Implementation. Write infrastructure code with auto-activated standards for Terraform (*.tf), Bicep (bicep/**), Bash (*.sh), and GitHub Actions (*.yml). Use /rpi-implement for approved complex, multi-file changes.
5. Stage 8: Delivery. Deploy infrastructure changes through CI/CD pipelines. Use /git-commit for conventional commits and /pull-request for infrastructure PRs with proper review.
6. Stage 9: Operations. Handle incidents with /incident-response runbooks. Investigate production issues with /rpi-research for structured root cause analysis.

Starter Prompts

/incident-response Create an incident response runbook for a data breach
involving customer PII exposure through a misconfigured storage bucket.
Include containment steps, GDPR notification timelines, forensic evidence
preservation, and post-incident review process.

Use /rpi-research:

Investigate elevated 503 errors on the /api/orders endpoint. Error rate
increased from 0.1% to 12% starting at 14:30 UTC. The service runs on
3 Kubernetes pods in the production-east cluster. Check pod logs, recent
deployments, and upstream dependency health.

Select security-planner agent:

Create a security plan for the Kubernetes ingress controller cluster.
Cover TLS termination and certificate rotation automation, network policy
rules for namespace isolation, WAF configuration for OWASP Top 10
protection, and audit logging for ingress configuration changes.

Select sssc-planner agent:

Assess the supply chain security posture for our CI/CD pipeline and container infrastructure

/pull-request Create a PR for infrastructure changes

Use /rpi-implement:

Implement Terraform infrastructure for the Redis cache cluster in the
staging environment. Use existing module patterns in infra/modules/.
Configure a 3-node cluster with 6GB memory, automatic failover, and
encryption at rest. Output the connection string to the Vault KV store.

Key Agents and Workflows

Agent or skill	Purpose	Docs
rpi-research	Structured production issue investigation	RPI workflow
rpi-implement	Infrastructure code implementation	RPI workflow
rpi-review	Infrastructure implementation review	RPI workflow
security-planner	Infrastructure security planning	Agent file
sssc-planner	Supply chain security assessment for infrastructure	Agent file
code-review	Pull request review for infrastructure changes	Agent file

Prompts complement the agents for operational workflows:

Prompt	Purpose	Invoke
incident-response	Incident response runbook creation	/incident-response
git-commit	Conventional commit message generation	/git-commit
pull-request	Pull request creation	/pull-request
git-merge	Git merge and rebase workflow management	/git-merge

Auto-activated instructions apply IaC standards based on file type: Terraform (*.tf, *.tfvars), Bicep (bicep/**), Bash (*.sh), and GitHub Actions workflows (.github/workflows/*.yml).

Tips

Do	Don't
Let IaC-specific instructions auto-activate by file type	Manually enforce Terraform or Bicep standards
Create incident response runbooks before incidents occur	Write runbooks reactively during active incidents
Use /rpi-research for structured root cause analysis	Debug production issues without systematic investigation
Review infrastructure PRs with the code-review agent	Merge infrastructure changes without code review
Use /git-commit for consistent, conventional commit history	Write ad-hoc commit messages for infrastructure changes

Related Roles

• SRE + Security Architect: Operational security, incident response, and monitoring connect security planning with production operations. Security models inform operational controls. See the Security Architect Guide.
• SRE + Engineer: Production reliability requires collaboration between infrastructure operations and feature development. Deployment pipelines serve both roles. See the Engineer Guide.
• SRE + Tech Lead: Infrastructure architecture decisions shape operational practices. IaC standards maintain consistency across environments. See the Tech Lead Guide.

Next Steps

TIP

Browse the complete HVE Core inventory: HVE Core Review security guidance: Security Documentation See how operations fits the project lifecycle: AI-Assisted Project Lifecycle

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🤖 Crafted with precision by ✨Copilot following brilliant human instruction, then carefully refined by our team of discerning human reviewers.