Composable Runbooks

Runbooks are user-defined, reusable multi-step workflows that chain existing change types with conditional logic. A runbook is a template — you define it once and execute it many times against different targets.

Step Types

Step Type	Description
change	Creates a change request of the specified type against a target
condition	Branches on the result of a previous step (success/failure/output value)
human_checkpoint	Pauses execution and waits for an operator to confirm before continuing
parallel_group	Runs a set of steps concurrently

Failure Handling

Each step has a configurable on_failure policy:

Policy	Behavior
abort	Stop execution immediately; leave completed steps in place
continue	Log the failure and move to the next step
rollback_all	Trigger rollback of all completed steps in reverse order

Versioning

Each time a runbook is edited, a new version is created. Active executions keep a snapshot of the version they started with — editing a runbook does not affect in-progress runs. You can fork a runbook to create a new one based on an existing version.

Seed Templates

Nexplane ships with three seed runbook templates:

Engineer Onboarding Provisions accounts across all connected identity systems (AD, Okta, Entra ID, GitHub, Slack, Google Workspace) from a single form, in the correct order with human checkpoints between phases.

Account Compromise IR Locks down a compromised account across all identity systems, preserves forensic evidence, forces MFA re-enrollment, and notifies the security team — as a single tracked, audited workflow.

Patch Campaign Audits patch status across a fleet, schedules a maintenance window, applies patches in rolling batches, and verifies service health after each batch.

API

Endpoint	Description
GET /runbooks/	List all runbooks
POST /runbooks/	Create a runbook
GET /runbooks/{id}	Get runbook with version history
POST /runbooks/{id}/trigger	Execute a runbook
POST /runbooks/{id}/fork	Fork a runbook to a new one
GET /executions/{id}	Get execution status
POST /executions/{id}/resume	Resume at a human checkpoint
POST /executions/{id}/abort	Abort an in-progress execution