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How Action Items Work

Action items are structured pieces of work created during or after an incident. They help teams capture urgent tasks, assign ownership, track accountability, and ensure important follow-up work is completed. Action items live alongside the incident timeline, Slack workflows, retrospectives, and analytics—providing full visibility into what was done during an incident and what still needs to be done. This page introduces how action items work, why they matter, and where they fit into the incident lifecycle.

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Why Action Items Matter

During fast-moving incidents, it’s easy for important work to be forgotten. Action items help by:
  • Capturing tasks needed to investigate or mitigate the issue
  • Tracking follow-up work after the incident to prevent recurrence
  • Assigning clear ownership so nothing is lost
  • Providing structure for retrospectives and improvement planning
  • Enabling automation through workflows and integrations
  • Improving accountability and long-term system reliability
Common examples include:
  • Task – “Restart service X on cluster Y.”
  • Task – “Verify the hotfix on canary pods.”
  • Follow-up – “Add alerting for cache saturation.”
  • Follow-up – “Update the API runbook with new mitigation steps.”
Action items are fully customizable and can be created from the Web UI, Slack, API, Workflows, or even tied to specific Incident Roles.

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Types of Action Items

Action items come in two forms, each serving a different purpose in the response lifecycle.

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Tasks — Work During the Incident

Tasks represent operational or investigative work that helps move the incident toward mitigation or resolution. Tasks typically include:
  • Title (required)
  • Description (Markdown supported)
  • Assignee (user or group)
  • Priority (High, Medium, Low)
  • Status (Open, In Progress, Done, Cancelled)
  • Optional reminder (5–180 minutes)

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Follow-Ups — Work After the Incident

Follow-ups help teams improve reliability after the incident is over. They are usually completed post-resolution. Follow-ups include:
  • Title (required)
  • Description (Markdown supported)
  • Priority
  • Assignee (user or group)
  • Due date
  • Status
Follow-ups are often reviewed and assigned during retrospectives, making them a critical part of continuous improvement.

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Where Action Items Live in Rootly

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On the Incident Timeline (Web UI)

Every task or follow-up appears directly on the timeline, keeping work tied to the context of the incident. Responders can:
  • Create or edit items
  • Assign or reassign owners
  • Update status or priority
  • Open linked JIRA / Linear / GitHub issues (if integrated)

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In Slack

If Slack is integrated, responders can create and manage action items without leaving the incident channel:
  • /rootly task
  • /rootly followup
  • /rootly add action item
  • /rootly action items (manage existing items)
Slack modals support assignment, priority, reminders, and descriptions.

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In the Web Interface

Each incident has an Action Items section where teams can:
  • Filter by priority, type, or status
  • Bulk-review outstanding work
  • Export action items to CSV, JSON, or XML
  • Manage all items across all incidents from a global dashboard

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In Workflows

Workflows can create tasks or follow-ups automatically based on:
  • Severity
  • Impacted services
  • Incident type
  • Sub-status changes
  • Timeline events
  • Role assignments
  • Custom logic
Automation ensures important tasks are created consistently and early.

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Through the API

Developers can programmatically create or update items: 
POST /api/v1/teams/:team_id/incidents/:incident_id/action_items
The API supports full lifecycle management, including due dates, priority, and linking external issue IDs.

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How Action Items Support the Response Process

Action items help orchestrate the human work that happens around incidents:
  • Timeline entries show when items were created, updated, or completed
  • Slack channel summaries update dynamically as items change
  • Workflow triggers can depend on action item status or presence
  • Retrospectives include a full list of tasks and follow-ups for review
  • Analytics dashboards help track overdue items, recurrence, and team performance
  • Permissions determine who can create, edit, or complete action items
When paired with roles and workflows, action items create a structured, predictable response process across teams.

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Where to Go Next

These pages will help you manage action items across all interfaces:
  • Add via Slack – Create tasks or follow-ups using Slack commands
  • Add via Web Interface – Add items directly from the incident page
  • Add via API – Programmatically create items from external systems
  • Add via Email – Append email-based action items when responding to incident emails
  • Incident Roles – Automatically create action items based on role responsibilities
  • Workflows – Generate tasks and follow-ups automatically based on incident conditions

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Best Practices

  • Create tasks early
    Capture investigative work as soon as it emerges.
  • Use follow-ups for durable improvements
    These often prevent recurrence.
  • Assign owners immediately
    Unassigned tasks often go stale.
  • Set due dates for follow-ups
    This increases accountability and helps with retrospective follow-through.
  • Use priorities intentionally
    High-priority follow-ups should be reviewed in retrospectives or weekly ops meetings.
  • Automate repetitive items
    Workflow-generated tasks ensure consistent coverage.
  • Review open follow-ups regularly
    Keeps your reliability improvement backlog healthy.

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FAQ

No. Smaller or operationally simple incidents may not require tasks or follow-ups.
One user may own the item, but multiple groups can also be assigned for shared accountability.
Yes. Descriptions fully support Markdown for links, formatting, and structured notes.
Yes. This is one of the most powerful features of Rootly’s workflows for predictable processes.
Yes. All tasks and follow-ups associated with an incident appear in the retrospective for review.
Yes. Action items support external issue linking for teams who track work in external systems.
Tasks may be completed, and remaining work typically becomes follow-ups. Some orgs disable new task creation after resolution.