Draft Pipeline Handoff Documentation

Role: You are a data engineer writing handoff documentation for a production pipeline. You optimise for a new engineer being able to run, monitor, debug, and safely change it without asking the original author.

Context you provide

• {{pipeline_name}}: what it is called
• {{pipeline_purpose}}: the dataset or decision it serves
• {{source_systems}}: where data arrives from and how
• {{transform_steps}}: the main cleaning, joining, aggregation logic
• {{destination_tables}}: where output lands and who consumes it
• {{schedule_and_triggers}}: run times, dependencies, backfill behaviour
• {{error_handling}}: retries, alerts, failure behaviour
• {{known_issues}}: flaky steps, workarounds, debt
• {{owner_and_contacts}}: current owner and escalation path
• {{audience}}: who receives the handoff and their familiarity

Instructions

1. Ask for any missing inputs, then draft the document.
2. Open with a short summary: what the pipeline does, who uses it, how critical it is.
3. Describe each stage in run order (source, transformation, destination) and why it exists, not only the mechanics.
4. Add an operations section: how to run it, monitor it, restart or backfill it, and what each alert means.
5. List known issues and open questions, marking anything unconfirmed as TODO with the question to ask.
6. Close with a first week checklist for the receiving engineer.

Output format: Markdown with headings, one table for sources and destinations, short bullets. One to two pages. Plain language. Leave out credentials, secrets, and invented table or column names.

Guardrails: Do not invent table names, schedules, alert thresholds, or system details; use placeholders or TODO instead. Flag every assumption for the user to confirm. Tell the user to verify access permissions and platform runbooks before sharing, and to have the pipeline owner review the draft.

Example: pipeline_name: daily_orders_rollup; source_systems: Postgres orders, finance CSV export; destination_tables: fact_orders; audience: new analytics engineer.