Escalation

Define who handles what for "$ARGUMENTS", when a ticket moves to someone else, what it must carry when it does, and what the customer hears while it is away.

Arguments. $ARGUMENTS may contain the project name and optional flags. Take the first token as <project> and treat --skip-checks as a flag; never include flags in file paths. All paths below use <project>. If --skip-checks is present, skip the prerequisite check and, before writing any artifact, append one line to .singularskills/log.jsonl: {"ts":"<ISO timestamp>","skill":"support-escalation","workflow":"support","phase":5,"project":"<project>","event":"skipped","artifact":"05-escalation.md","note":"<reason or \"none given\">"}.

Compute with code. Perform every calculation (totals, balances, ratios, variances, projections) with a script — Bash, Python or a spreadsheet formula written to a file — and include the computation alongside the result. Never do arithmetic mentally.

Prerequisites

Part of a workflow. This skill is phase 5 (Escalation) of the Support Operations Cycle workflow (support); cross-domain workflows run it too. First check .singularskills/log.jsonl for an open run for this project: a run-started line with "project":"<project>" and no later run-finished line for the same workflow and project. If one exists, the conductor is running you: continue here. Otherwise, if the user asked to start, run, continue or resume a process or workflow rather than this one step, do not continue here: invoke the workflow skill with the workflow the user asked for, or support when they named none, followed by <project>; it runs this phase in order, asks before it writes and records the run. Otherwise continue here: a later phase runs on its own, behind its gate.

Run this skill's gate before writing: sh <this skill's folder>/scripts/gate.sh <project> <project root>, where <project root> is the folder that contains .singularskills/ (use . when you are already there). If it exits non-zero, stop and tell the user what it printed, unless --skip-checks was given (see Arguments). On a refusal, before you stop, append this line to .singularskills/log.jsonl (create the folder and file if missing): {"ts":"<ISO timestamp>","skill":"support-escalation","workflow":"support","phase":5,"project":"<project>","event":"refused","artifact":"05-escalation.md","note":"<what the gate printed>"}. Once the gate has passed, or under --skip-checks once you have appended the skipped line, append this line before you start work: {"ts":"<ISO timestamp>","skill":"support-escalation","workflow":"support","phase":5,"project":"<project>","event":"started","artifact":"05-escalation.md","note":""}.

Read .singularskills/support/<project>/02-taxonomy.md for the categories and the P1 to P4 priorities.

Process

1. Ask the user about the team: who answers tickets today, which teams exist beyond support (engineering, billing, account management, security, legal), how each prefers to receive work (a queue, a channel, an issue tracker), and who is on call outside hours.

2. Define the tiers: what tier 1 resolves alone, what tier 2 (specialists or senior agents) takes, and what leaves support. For each tier, the categories it owns and what it may decide.

3. Set the escalation triggers as a table of priority × category: when a ticket must move, to whom, and how fast. Include the triggers that apply to any category: the customer asks for a manager, the customer threatens to leave or take legal action, the same customer contacts support a third time about the same problem, or the agent has no answer after a set time.

4. Define each handoff with what the ticket must carry:

   • Engineering: steps to reproduce, expected and actual behaviour, the account's plan and environment, how many customers are affected, and the ticket links — never the customer's personal details beyond what reproducing needs.
   • Billing: the charge, the date, what the customer expected, and the policy line from 04-macros.md if one applies.
   • Account management: the account's value and renewal date if the user tracks them, and the history of recent contacts.
   • Security: any ticket suggesting account takeover, unauthorised access, data exposure or a breach goes to the security contact at once, and the incident is handled with /security-incident-response; the agent tells the customer only what the security contact approves.

5. Keep the customer informed: for each handoff, what the agent tells the customer at the handoff, how often they get an update while the ticket is away (in line with references/service-recovery.md: always say when the next update comes), and who owns the reply when the ticket comes back.

6. Write the artifact to .singularskills/support/<project>/05-escalation.md with sections:

   • Tiers — what each tier owns and may decide
   • Triggers — the priority × category table and the general triggers
   • Handoffs — each team, its route and what a ticket must carry
   • Customer updates — what the customer hears, and how often
   • On call — who covers outside hours

Output

The escalation paths written to .singularskills/support/<project>/05-escalation.md. Present a summary to the user highlighting:

• The tiers and what leaves support
• The P1 escalation route and its speed
• What a bug report to engineering must contain
• Any team or on-call gap the user has not filled

Record the run. After you have written the artifact, append this line to .singularskills/log.jsonl (the started line of Prerequisites, with "event":"finished"): {"ts":"<ISO timestamp>","skill":"support-escalation","workflow":"support","phase":5,"project":"<project>","event":"finished","artifact":"05-escalation.md","note":""}.

Open the artifact with this frontmatter (agent is the agent you run in, or unknown; gate is passed when the gate ran clean and skipped under --skip-checks):

---
skill: support-escalation
workflow: support
phase: 5
project: <project>
started: <ISO timestamp>
finished: <ISO timestamp>
agent: <the agent you run in, or "unknown">
gate: <passed|skipped>
---

End the artifact with ## Decisions and ## Open questions, in this shape:

## Decisions
- <what was chosen> — <why> — <what was rejected>

## Open questions
- <what the next phase or a reviewer must settle>