Beacon

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Incident Templates

Incident templates are pre-written responses that your team can apply with one click during an active incident. They reduce response time, eliminate guesswork under pressure, and ensure your public communications are consistent and professional.

What templates are

A template is a reusable blueprint for incident communication. Each template stores a combination of fields -- title, impact level, state, and message body -- that can be applied to a new incident or incident update in a single action.

Templates are scoped to a workspace. Every team member with permission to create incidents can use the templates defined in that workspace.

Common use cases include:

  • Standard incident lifecycle messages (investigating, identified, monitoring, resolved)
  • Recurring maintenance announcements
  • Responses for specific failure modes your team encounters frequently
  • Onboarding new team members who may not know what to communicate during an incident

Creating templates

To create a template, navigate to your Dashboard and open Incident Templates. Click Create and fill in the following fields:

Field Purpose
name Internal label for identification. This is what appears in the template dropdown. Not shown to the public.
title Pre-fills the incident title field. Use a generic but descriptive title that your team can customize.
impact Pre-selects the impact level: none, minor, major, or critical.
state Pre-selects the incident state: investigating, identified, monitoring, or resolved.
message Pre-fills the update message body. This is the text that appears on the public status page.

Using templates

When creating a new incident or posting an update to an existing incident, a "Use a template" dropdown appears at the top of the form. Select a template from the list and the form fields are populated automatically with the template's values.

After applying a template, you can edit any of the pre-filled fields before submitting. Templates are a starting point, not a constraint. Your team should review and customize the message to reflect the specifics of the current incident.

Applying a template replaces the current form values. If you have already typed content into the form, it will be overwritten when you select a template.

Example templates

Beacon includes four default templates that cover the standard incident lifecycle. You can use these as-is or modify them to match your team's voice and processes.

1. Investigating issue

Name:     Investigating issue
Impact:   major
State:    investigating
Message:  We are currently investigating reports of issues affecting
          this service. Our team has been alerted and is actively
          looking into the problem. We will provide an update as
          soon as we have more information.

2. Root cause identified

Name:     Root cause identified
State:    identified
Message:  We have identified the root cause of this issue and our
          engineering team is working on a fix. We expect to deploy
          a resolution shortly and will update this incident when
          the fix is live.

3. Fix deployed, monitoring

Name:     Fix deployed, monitoring
State:    monitoring
Message:  A fix has been deployed and we are monitoring the results.
          If you continue to experience issues, please let us know.
          We will provide a final update once we have confirmed
          full stability.

4. Issue resolved

Name:     Issue resolved
State:    resolved
Message:  The issue has been resolved and all systems are operating
          normally. We apologize for any inconvenience and will
          continue to monitor the situation. A post-incident review
          will be conducted internally.

Best practices

  • Cover your most common scenarios — Create templates for the incident types your team encounters most frequently. Database outages, API degradation, third-party provider issues, and scheduled maintenance are good starting points.
  • Include placeholder text — Write messages with sections that your team should customize, such as the affected service name or estimated time to resolution. This reminds responders to fill in specifics rather than sending a fully generic message.
  • Keep messages concise and factual — Avoid speculation or blame. State what is happening, what the impact is, and what your team is doing about it. Users appreciate clarity over length.
  • Use templates for consistency during stressful incidents — During a major outage, cognitive load is high. Templates ensure that your first public communication goes out quickly and maintains a professional tone, even when the team is under pressure.
  • Review and update templates regularly — As your product and infrastructure evolve, so should your templates. Audit them periodically to ensure the language and scenarios are still relevant.

AI-powered drafting

In addition to templates, Beacon offers AI-powered incident drafting. When composing an incident update, you can type a brief internal note describing what happened in plain language, and the AI generates a professional, public-facing message from it.

AI drafting and templates complement each other:

  • Templates — Best for predictable, recurring scenarios where you want exact control over the wording.
  • AI drafting — Best for novel incidents where a template does not exist. The AI adapts to the specifics you provide.

Both features are available from the same incident form. You can start with a template and then use AI to refine the message, or start from scratch with AI drafting.