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Overview

Action items are for tracking specific work that needs to be done during incident handling — things like “scale up the database connection pool” or “roll back the latest release”. The Actions panel on the right side of the incident overview page manages all action items for the current incident, and each item supports a title, a description, and multiple assignees. An action item can be converted into a follow-up, which then enters the post-incident review process. Follow-ups share the same work-item model as action items (same fields and statuses); the difference is that follow-ups belong to a post-incident review: when you convert or create a follow-up and the incident already has a postmortem report, the system automatically links it to that report, and it is then maintained in the report’s To-dos block.

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Creating and Editing Action Items

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Create

In the Actions panel on the right side of the incident overview page, click Add an action item (or Add when the panel already contains items) and fill in the following fields in the dialog: Once created, the action item appears in the panel and an “action created” event is recorded on the incident timeline. Members assigned as assignees receive a personal notification prompting them to follow through (sent by email by default; you can adjust notification channels in Personal Settings).

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Edit and Delete

  • Members with incident update permission can click the item title, or use Edit in the More menu, to change the title, description, or assignees
  • Newly added assignees also receive a personal notification; removing an assignee does not trigger a notification
  • Delete in the More menu requires confirmation; deletion cannot be undone

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Status Transitions

Each action item’s status is managed through its checkbox and the More menu: The More menu also provides Mark as completed and Cancel completion shortcuts. Status changes are likewise recorded on the incident timeline.

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Converting to Follow-Ups and Linking to Postmortems

When you decide during handling that an action item needs continued follow-through, you can convert it into a postmortem follow-up:
  • After conversion, the action item becomes a follow-up in place (the work-item type changes from Action to Follow-up) and enters the review process
  • If the incident already has a postmortem report at that point, the converted follow-up is automatically linked to that report
  • If no postmortem exists yet, the follow-up stays unlinked; once a postmortem is created, all unlinked follow-ups under the incident can be linked (bound) to it in bulk
Once linked, follow-ups can be edited, completed, or deleted in the report’s To-dos block, and related operations are recorded on the incident timeline (for example, “follow-up linked to post-incident review”). For writing and publishing postmortems, see Create and Edit Postmortems.

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Permission Model

Access to action items and follow-ups follows these rules: In addition, reading and writing action items are constrained by the incident’s collaboration space: only account owners, account admins, and members who can access the incident’s collaboration space may operate on them. Incidents created manually without a collaboration space remain visible account-wide, and all account members can access them. This matches the access rules of the incident itself.

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Closed Incidents

Once an incident is closed, the Actions panel becomes read-only:
  • You cannot create, edit, or delete action items, nor change their status (the UI hides the add button and action entries, and the backend also rejects creating action items for closed incidents)
  • You can only view existing action items for reviewing how the incident was handled
If action items remain unfinished when closing an incident, consider finishing them or converting them into follow-ups before closing.

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Further Reading