FREESKILL v1.0UPDATED 2026-08

Standard Operating Procedures

An SOP makes recurring work executable by showing the trigger, roles, steps, evidence, decisions, exceptions, controls, records, and change authority.

A checklist is not yet a procedure when operators still need unwritten knowledge to know who acts, what evidence a step leaves, or what happens when the normal path fails.

This playbook drafts or audits an SOP without inventing missing process. A normal-case and failure-case walk-through expose hidden decisions, unresolved approvals, unsafe shortcuts, and gaps that must remain visible for the accountable specialist.

If two trained operators can follow the same document and reach different results, a decision is still hidden.

SIGNALS YOU NEED THIS

Steps have verbs but no owner, input, output, or failure response.

Approval authority or escalation exists only in people's heads.

The document claims compliance without the accountable specialist review.

REPLACES

Loose checklists, inherited tribal knowledge, and procedures that describe only the happy path.

PAIRS WITH

Done, Correction of Errors, Post Mortems, and Business Writing.

0 of 4 steps complete

STEP 01Define the operating boundary

State purpose, scope, exclusions, observable trigger, and completion condition. Record the process owner and any unresolved effective or review dates.

PURPOSE
  Review active-user access every week.
  Trigger: Monday active-user export.
  Complete when every row has a confirmation or recorded escalation.
  Process owner: Operations lead
  Effective date: Date needed

STEP 02Map roles, prerequisites, and authority

Name responsibilities, decisions, backups, access, training, information, and controlled checks. Use Expert review needed when a safety, privacy, compliance, or approval rule is unknown.

ROLES
  Operations lead: starts the review and records changes.
  Team owners: confirm removals and role changes by Wednesday.
  Security reviewer: decides disputed access.
  Backup role: Role needed.

STEP 03Write executable steps and decisions

Give each step one observable action with an owner, input, output or evidence, service target, and failure response. Show both yes and no paths for decisions.

STEP
  Owner: Team owner
  Input: assigned access rows
  Action: confirm removal or role change
  Output: recorded confirmation
  Due: Wednesday
  Failure response: escalate disputed access to security reviewer

STEP 04Add exceptions, controls, records, and governance

State when to stop, who owns escalation, the response target, required record, quality checks, retention rule, version, approval, review date, and change history. Leave unknowns open.

OPEN GAPS
  Backup role: Role needed
  Record retention: Expert review needed
  Escalation response target: Target needed
  Review date: Date needed

STATUS
  Draft pending domain review

Download the folder into your agent's skills directory. It uses only the material you provide and makes no remote calls.

skills/standard-operating-procedures

standard-operating-procedures/
├── SKILL.md                         ← draft and audit modes
├── meta.yaml                        ← version, sources, test prompts, changelog
├── LICENSE.md                       ← MIT
├── assets/
│   ├── sop-template.md              ← executable procedure contract
│   └── sop-audit-scorecard.md       ← paper walk-through audit
└── references/
    └── procedure-design-guide.md    ← steps, decisions, controls, exceptions

INVOKE IT LIKE THIS

"Turn this process into an SOP."

Download skill v1.0 View source files

WORKS WITHClaude Code