Talk through the runbook once. Get the flow and the steps.
Wavelength is for IT ops, SRE, and service desk leads who need runbooks that people can actually follow. You explain the incident or change process out loud, or upload a recording, and you get a visual process map with lanes for on-call, service desk, and CAB, plus a written runbook with owners per step.
The hard part of a runbook is not the happy path. It is the branch where severity is high and an incident commander takes over, or where the change advisory board needs to review before the window. Those handoffs are the part that slows you down at 2am, and they are the part nobody writes down.
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Why runbooks drift from reality
You write the runbook after the last incident from memory and a few chat messages. It covers the path you remember. The next incident takes a different branch, and the on-call engineer follows the runbook until it stops matching what they see. They fall back to asking someone who was there last time.
The fix is to capture the process while the person who runs it is still in the room. They talk, the diagram builds, and the branches appear as they describe them. The runbook comes from the same source as the diagram, so the two stay in sync.
How it works
- Hold the mic and explain the process. Talk as if you are walking a new on-call engineer through it. The actors, steps, decisions, and handoffs appear on the canvas as you mention them.
- Or upload a recording. Drop in a postmortem recording or a voice memo. Audio and video files up to 120 minutes are supported, counted against your mic minutes.
- Switch to lanes by role. The Lanes layout groups steps into rows by owner, so the handoffs between on-call, service desk, and CAB show up as edges that cross lane boundaries.
- Add metrics to the steps that matter. Set active and wait minutes on the handoff steps. The metrics summary shows total active time, total wait time, and the wait percent.
- Export the runbook. Choose Export and then SOP document for a .doc file that opens in Word and Google Docs, or Copy SOP as Markdown for Confluence or any wiki.
See where the process stalls
Add wait minutes to the steps between handoffs and the metrics summary bar shows the total wait time and the wait percent. The steps with the longest waits are the ones to fix first, whether that means a faster escalation path or a shorter CAB cycle.
What the runbook includes
The exported runbook lists the roles mentioned in the process, the tools involved, and the numbered steps in order. Each step has an owner when the conversation names who does it. Decision points appear as branches with the paths that follow. Open questions the AI could not resolve are called out at the end so you know what to confirm with the team.
Where it does not fit
Wavelength is not an incident management tool. It does not send alerts, page on-call engineers, track SLAs, or integrate with PagerDuty or ServiceNow. It documents the process so the runbook exists before the next incident. Use it alongside your incident tool, not instead of it.
It also does not run automation. It captures the spoken walkthrough and turns it into a flow and a written procedure. If you need to execute runbook steps automatically, that belongs in an automation platform. Export the n8n or Make skeleton from the flow to start building it there.
Common questions
Does Wavelength page anyone or run automation?
No. Wavelength documents the incident or change process, in the words of the people who run it. It does not send alerts, page on-call engineers, or execute runbook steps. You use it to write the runbook, not to run it.
Can I show wait time between handoffs?
Yes. Add active and wait minutes to the steps that matter. The metrics summary shows total active time, total wait time, and the wait percent, so you can see where the process stalls.
Can I separate on-call, service desk, and CAB lanes?
Yes. Switch to the Lanes layout and the steps group into rows by owner. The handoffs between on-call, service desk, and the change advisory board show up as edges that cross lane boundaries.
What file format is the runbook?
A .doc file that opens in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. You can also copy the runbook as Markdown for Confluence, Notion, or any wiki.
Is this an incident management tool?
No. Wavelength captures and documents the process. It does not manage incidents, track SLAs, or integrate with PagerDuty or ServiceNow. Use it alongside your incident tool to produce the runbook.