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hotfix skill

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This skill accelerates urgent production fixes by guiding hotfix workflows from main branch to verified PRs and rapid alerts.

npx playbooks add skill wellapp-ai/well --skill hotfix

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md
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---
name: hotfix
description: Expedited workflow for urgent production issues
---

# Hotfix Skill

Fast-track fixes for production incidents.

## When to Use
- Production is down or degraded
- Critical bug affecting users
- Security vulnerability discovered

## How It Differs from Normal Flow

| Normal | Hotfix |
|--------|--------|
| Branch from develop | Branch from main |
| ASK mode exploration | Skip to fix |
| Full PR review | Expedited review |
| Standard Slack message | URGENT alert |

## The Flow
1. **Branch** - Create hotfix branch from main
2. **Fix** - Implement minimal fix
3. **Verify** - Test fix works
4. **PR** - Create with HOTFIX label
5. **Alert** - Notify team urgently

## Phase Checklist

### Phase 1: Create Hotfix Branch
- [ ] Fetch latest: `git fetch origin main`
- [ ] Branch from main: `git checkout -b hotfix/<issue-summary> origin/main`
- [ ] Confirm on hotfix branch

### Phase 2: Implement Fix
- [ ] Identify root cause (minimal investigation)
- [ ] Implement smallest possible fix
- [ ] Run typecheck and lint
- [ ] NO new features, NO refactoring

### Phase 3: Verify
- [ ] Test fix locally
- [ ] Confirm original issue resolved
- [ ] Check for obvious regressions

### Phase 4: Create PR
- [ ] Push branch: `git push -u origin HEAD`
- [ ] Create PR to main with HOTFIX label:
  ```bash
  gh pr create --base main --title "HOTFIX: <summary>" --label hotfix
  ```
- [ ] Request expedited review

### Phase 5: Alert Team

Generate urgent Slack message:

```
:rotating_light: **HOTFIX: [Issue Summary]**

**Impact:** [What was broken]
**Fix:** [What was changed]

:github: PR: [link]
:notion: Incident: [link if exists]

Requesting expedited review from: @[reviewer]
```

## After Merge
- [ ] Merge main back to develop: `git checkout develop && git merge main`
- [ ] Create incident report in Notion (if major)

Overview

This skill fast-tracks fixes for urgent production incidents in a TypeScript FinOps stack. It codifies an expedited branch, test, PR, and alert workflow so teams restore service quickly with minimal risk. The goal is predictable, repeatable hotfixes that prioritize safety and speed.

How this skill works

The skill inspects the incident context and guides you through a five-phase flow: create a hotfix branch from main, implement the smallest possible fix, verify locally, open a labeled HOTFIX PR for expedited review, and send an urgent team alert. It enforces checks like typecheck and lint, forbids new features or refactors, and includes post-merge synchronization back to develop.

When to use it

  • Production service is down or severely degraded
  • A critical bug impacts customers or revenue
  • A verified security vulnerability needs immediate patching
  • When user-facing data integrity or billing flows are broken
  • When an incident response requires prioritized, minimal-change remediation

Best practices

  • Branch from main and keep changes minimal to reduce risk
  • Run typecheck and lint before pushing to catch obvious errors
  • Avoid adding features or refactoring during the hotfix
  • Create a clear HOTFIX PR title and label to trigger expedited review
  • Send a concise urgent alert with impact, fix summary, PR link, and requested reviewers
  • Merge main back into develop and document an incident report if the issue was major

Example use cases

  • Critical invoice extraction bug causing incorrect billing calculations in production
  • Receipt ingestion pipeline outage that blocks revenue reporting
  • High-severity regression introduced in deploy that breaks user checkout
  • Security patch for exposed credentials or privilege escalation vector
  • Emergency fix for a data routing rule that misclassifies financial transactions

FAQ

How small should a hotfix change be?

Make the minimal, focused change that resolves the incident. No new features, no refactors—only what’s needed to restore correct behavior.

What tests should I run before creating the PR?

Run local verification for the failing path, plus typecheck and lint. Smoke test related flows to catch obvious regressions before pushing.