01
Wrong Customer Reply Sent
Freeze replies, export the affected thread, write a plain correction, add the phrase to the blocked-send checklist.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
Automation Incident Recovery Drills — 26 Calm SOPs for Solo AI Operators
26 practical recovery drills for owner-run shops using AI, automations, templates, bots, webhooks, and assistant workflows.
Use the four-part recovery loop
- Pause the risky automation.
- Prove what happened with a clean record.
- Repair harm or confusion in plain language.
- Prevent repeat failure before reactivation.
02
Automation Loops Repeating
Disable the trigger, count duplicated actions, tag all duplicate records, then reopen with a one-run limiter.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
03
AI Summary Misses an Obligation
Compare against the source document, mark the missed clause, add a required human-read checkpoint for obligations.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
04
Draft Posted Too Early
Archive the draft, screenshot what was public, notify only affected readers, add a publish-button approval gate.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
05
Invoice Reminder Feels Harsh
Pause reminder sequence, replace tone with neutral facts, add a relationship-risk review before future sends.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
06
Bad Data Imported
Stop downstream jobs, keep the original import file, restore from last clean export, validate ten random records.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
07
Lead Scoring Becomes Biased
Remove protected or proxy attributes, review ten rejected leads, replace score with transparent fit criteria.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
08
Support Bot Cannot Answer
Switch to handoff mode, publish current expected response time, add three human fallback phrases.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
09
Calendar Booking Collision
Block new slots, identify overlaps, offer two alternatives to each affected person, test timezone handling.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
10
Private Note Exposed
Remove access, preserve audit log, notify owner, split private notes from customer-facing fields.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
11
Outdated Policy Reused
Pull the latest policy source, mark old snippets retired, add expiry dates to reusable text blocks.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
12
File Download Broken
Check path, permissions, and MIME type; provide temporary access link only if approved; log the final fix.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
13
Payment/Checkout Confusion
Do not alter payment settings during incident review; document symptoms and escalate before changing money flows.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
14
Translation Changes Meaning
Back-translate the sentence, replace idioms with plain language, keep bilingual glossary approvals.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
15
Social Reply Sounds Manipulative
Delete the draft, rewrite as consent-based help, add a no-pressure language filter.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
16
Analytics Spike Looks Fake
Check bot/referrer patterns, separate paid/organic traffic, avoid decisions until clean segment is confirmed.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
17
Customer Segment Mislabelled
Stop targeted sends, rebuild segment from explicit behaviour, spot-check records before reactivation.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
18
Webhook Fails Silently
Add visible failure log, retry queue, and owner alert; never rely on silent background success.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
19
Prompt Injection in Customer Text
Treat customer text as untrusted, strip instructions, and route suspicious content to manual review.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
20
Over-Automated Refund Reply
Pause refund automation, send a human review note, keep policy text separate from decision text.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
21
Generated Legal Claim Appears
Remove claim, replace with educational disclaimer, require sourced review for legal/financial wording.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
22
Inventory/Availability Wrong
Freeze availability messages, reconcile source of truth, then send corrected status with no blame language.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
23
Daily Report Becomes Noise
Reduce to three metrics, add action owner, archive vanity metrics until someone acts on them.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
24
API Key Accidentally Pasted
Revoke and rotate outside the ebook workflow, scrub logs where policy allows, document only key name not value.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
25
Model Output Quality Drops
Compare examples before/after, lower task scope, add acceptance examples, re-enable gradually.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.
26
Owner Is Too Tired to Judge
Use the red/yellow/green pause rule: red waits, yellow drafts only, green low-risk automation may continue.
Before restart: add one checklist item, one owner review point, and one limited test run.