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

# Postmortems

> Write blameless postmortems and keep a permanent record of your incidents.

Postmortems in Obsy are structured documents that capture what happened, why it happened, and what you're doing to prevent it from happening again. They're linked to incidents and RCAs so all context is in one place.

## Creating a postmortem

### From a resolved incident

1. Open the incident detail.
2. Click **Create postmortem** in the header or the prompt shown after resolution.
3. Obsy pre-fills the postmortem with:
   * Incident title and severity
   * Incident timeline
   * RCA summary, root cause, contributing factors, and recommendations (if an RCA exists)
4. Edit and expand each section, then click **Save**.

### From an RCA

Open the RCA detail page and click **Create postmortem from RCA**. Same pre-fill behavior.

### Manually

Go to **Postmortems** in the sidebar and click **New postmortem**. Start from a blank template.

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## Postmortem sections

| Section                  | What to write                                 |
| ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------- |
| **Title**                | Clear, factual title. Avoid blame language.   |
| **Date**                 | When the incident occurred                    |
| **Authors**              | Who wrote this document                       |
| **Severity**             | Incident severity level                       |
| **Duration**             | Time from first alert to resolution           |
| **Impact**               | Who was affected and how                      |
| **Timeline**             | Key events in chronological order             |
| **Root cause**           | Technical cause (from RCA or manual analysis) |
| **Contributing factors** | What made it worse or harder to catch         |
| **What went well**       | Things the team did well during response      |
| **What went wrong**      | What failed — technically or procedurally     |
| **Action items**         | Specific tasks with owners and due dates      |

***

## Editing a postmortem

Open any postmortem from the **Postmortems** list and click **Edit**. All fields are editable. Click **Save** to persist changes.

***

## Sharing a postmortem

Postmortems are visible to all members of your organization. Copy the URL from your browser to share a link directly to a specific postmortem.

***

## Best practices

* **Write blameless postmortems.** Focus on systems and processes, not individuals.
* **Write while it's fresh.** Start within 24–48 hours of resolution.
* **Be specific about action items.** Each item needs an owner and a due date — vague items don't get done.
* **Share widely.** Postmortems should be accessible to your whole engineering team, not just the people on the incident.