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Use AI Scribe Agent

What is the AI Scribe Agent?

The AI Scribe Agent is a specialized autonomous component of the Harness AI SRE platform that acts as a virtual scribe during incidents. It automatically documents communications, decisions, and actions across multiple channels to create comprehensive incident records without manual effort.

The AI Scribe Agent serves as your dedicated incident management specialist, automatically capturing and organizing all incident response activities across communication platforms. By monitoring Slack channels, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams meetings, it ensures that no critical information is lost during high-pressure incident response situations.

Key Capabilities​

The AI Scribe Agent provides these specific autonomous functions:

Automated Documentation​

  • Continuous Recording: Captures all communications without human intervention
  • Key Event Detection: Processes transcript chunks through an LLM to identify notable events (decisions, status changes, actions) and adds them as timeline entries

Communication Analysis​

  • Continuity Across the Incident: The AI Scribe maintains context by tracking conversation state and processing new messages incrementally, ensuring events from early in the incident are available when later messages are analyzed.
  • Timeline Construction: Creates chronological records of events

Communication Platform Integrations​

Slack Integration​

The AI SRE Scribe Agent actively monitors dedicated incident channels to:

  • Real-time Capture: Records all conversations as they happen
  • Decision Tracking: Identifies and highlights key decisions with timestamps
  • Action Item Detection: Manually created via web UI and Slack commands
  • Timeline Construction: Creates chronological event sequences

Zoom Integration​

Third-Party Transcription Services

Zoom meeting transcription uses third-party services. Recall.ai deploys the meeting bot, and AssemblyAI handles audio transcription. Review the data handling and privacy policies for these services when evaluating this feature for your organization.

The AI SRE Scribe Agent joins incident war room meetings to:

  • Meeting Transcription: Converts spoken discussions into searchable text
  • Key Point Extraction: Identifies and highlights critical information
  • Summary Generation: Creates concise meeting summaries
  • Speaker Attribution: Maintains record of who said what
  • Decision Documentation: Captures decisions made during calls

Microsoft Teams Integration​

Third-Party Transcription Services

Microsoft Teams meeting transcription uses third-party services. Recall.ai deploys the meeting bot, and AssemblyAI handles audio transcription. Review the data handling and privacy policies for these services when evaluating this feature for your organization.

The AI SRE Scribe Agent participates in Teams meetings to:

  • Conversation Monitoring: Tracks all incident-related discussions
  • Insight Extraction: Identifies important technical details
  • Meeting Minutes: Creates structured records of discussions
  • Follow-up Tracking: Flags items requiring further action

Automated Documentation Features​

Comprehensive Event Capture​

The AI SRE Scribe Agent automatically records and categorizes:

  • Communication Data: Messages, calls, and meetings across platforms
  • Technical Details: System states, error messages, and diagnostic information
  • Team Coordination: Assignments, handoffs, and escalations
  • Resolution Steps: Actions taken to mitigate and resolve issues
  • Business Impact: Customer-facing effects and service degradations
  • Post-Incident Tasks: Follow-up items and preventative measures

Intelligent Timeline Generation​

The AI SRE Scribe Agent transforms raw communications into structured incident timelines. The following examples illustrate how the Scribe interprets messages — actual output labels may vary:

Examples of Automated Documentation:​

Status Update Detection (Slack)

[14:23 UTC] DevOps Engineer: Database failover completed successfully

↓ AI SRE Scribe processes this as:

14:23 UTC - RECOVERY ACTION: Database failover completed successfully

Technical Decision Capture (Zoom)

"After reviewing metrics, we've identified a memory leak in the payment service."

↓ AI SRE Scribe processes this as:

15:07 UTC - ROOT CAUSE IDENTIFIED: Memory leak detected in payment service

Post-Incident Review​

Post-incident documentation is generated via the Post-Incident Review runbook action — it does not run automatically when an incident closes. To use it:

  1. Add the action to a runbook: In your runbook configuration, add the Post-Incident Review action.
  2. Configure a template: Provide the template the action will use to structure the report. The action combines your template with key events and the incident timeline.
  3. Trigger the runbook: Run the runbook manually at incident close, or configure an on-close runbook trigger to invoke it automatically.

The AI generates the report content — but the setup and trigger are human-configured.

Maximizing the AI SRE Scribe Agent​

Optimal Configuration​

  • Dedicated Channels: Create purpose-specific incident channels
  • Early Integration: Add the AI SRE Scribe Agent at incident creation
  • Naming Conventions: Use consistent, searchable channel naming
  • Access Management: Ensure the agent has proper permissions
  • Platform Coverage: Deploy across all communication platforms

Communication Best Practices​

These tips help the AI Scribe capture your intent more accurately. The Scribe uses NLP to interpret messages in context, but clear formatting makes it easier to detect what matters most:

  • Decision Markers: Prefix key decisions with "DECISION:" to help the Scribe identify them reliably
  • Action Formatting: Use "ACTION ITEM:" to flag tasks clearly
  • Status Updates: Structure updates with timestamps and service names
  • Handoff Documentation: Clearly document shift changes and handoffs
  • Terminology Consistency: Use standard terms across all communications

Documentation Review​

  • Verification: Review AI-generated timelines for accuracy
  • Enrichment: Add business context to technical details
  • Completion Check: Ensure all critical events are captured
  • Annotation: Add post-incident insights to the timeline
  • Knowledge Base: Use documentation for training and process improvement

AI Scribe Capabilities vs. Human Scribes​

AspectAI Scribe AgentHuman Scribe

| Coverage | Captures all communications in monitored channels and transcribed meetings | May miss details during fast-paced incidents | | Availability | Always available, no scheduling needed | Requires staffing and scheduling | | Consistency | Uniform documentation format | Varies by individual | | Cost | Fixed platform cost | Requires dedicated staff time |

Getting Started​

Quick Setup​

Summary​

By leveraging the AI Scribe Agent, teams can focus on resolving incidents faster while maintaining comprehensive documentation automatically. This specialized agent handles the documentation burden so your technical teams can concentrate on what matters most: restoring service and resolving customer-impacting issues.