> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.scaling.cloud/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Write a post-mortem

> Take an auto-created draft from a resolved incident through review to a published retrospective, then export it to share.

This guide walks a [post-mortem](/concepts/post-mortems) from the draft scaling.cloud creates on resolution through to a published retrospective. For how post-mortems work conceptually — the lifecycle, sections, and AI behavior — see [Post-mortems](/concepts/post-mortems).

## Prerequisites

* A **resolved** incident. Resolving an incident creates its post-mortem draft automatically.
* Permission to edit the post-mortem (the author and organization admins can edit).

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the draft">
    In the dashboard, go to **Post-mortems**. The draft for your incident is at the top — filter by **Draft** or **Mine only** if the list is long. Open it.

    The sidebar shows the incident at a glance: severity, when it opened and resolved, duration, affected components, and who was paged.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review what's already filled in">
    If your organization has [AI Investigations](/concepts/ai-investigations), the **Timeline**, **Root cause**, and **Contributing factors** sections are already seeded from the incident's findings. Read them first and correct anything the signals got wrong — they're a starting draft, not the final word.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Write the remaining sections">
    Fill in the rest: **Summary**, **Impact**, **What went well**, **Learnings**, and **Follow-ups**. Capture concrete, owned action items in **Follow-ups** — that's the part that prevents a recurrence.

    There's no save button — changes **auto-save** when you blur a section or pause typing.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Address the AI review">
    scaling.cloud's **AI review** leaves comments on the draft, flagging thin sections, a vague root cause, or missing follow-ups. Work through them and tighten the document. The review only comments — it never edits your text, so you stay in control.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Request review">
    Click **Request review** and optionally pick a teammate as the reviewer — they're notified. This moves the post-mortem to **In review**. Reviewers read and comment; you keep editing until it's ready.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Publish">
    When it's final, click **Publish**. (If you don't need a reviewer, use **Publish without review** to go straight from draft to published.) A published post-mortem is **locked and read-only**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## After publishing

* **Reopen** — need to fix something? Click **Reopen for edits** to unlock the document, then publish again.
* **Export** — from the **Post-mortems** list, download any post-mortem as **Markdown** or **PDF** to share it outside scaling.cloud.
* **Follow-ups** — open action items stay visible on the list after publishing, so the work doesn't get lost.

<Note>
  Drafts that sit unwritten are flagged **overdue**, and scaling.cloud reminds the
  author. Filter the list by **Overdue only** to clear the backlog.
</Note>

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom                                | Fix                                                                                                                          |
| -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Sections are read-only                 | You're not the author or an admin. Ask the author or an admin to edit.                                                       |
| No post-mortem exists for an incident  | Post-mortems are created on resolution — confirm the incident is `resolved`.                                                 |
| The draft opened empty                 | AI seeding requires [AI Investigations](/concepts/ai-investigations) and a finding to seed from. Write the sections by hand. |
| Need to change a published post-mortem | Click **Reopen for edits** (admins can also delete or roll back).                                                            |