Software Engineering

Turning manual processes into runbooks and scripts

Uses ChatGPT/Claude in a back-and-forth to convert manual processes into clear checklists/runbooks and sometimes generate an automation script.

Why the human is still essential here

The engineer defines the process, verifies steps, and safely implements/operationalizes automation; AI helps translate messy workflow knowledge into structured procedures.

How people use this

Incident response runbook from notes

AI turns a rough set of troubleshooting notes into a structured runbook with prerequisites, step-by-step commands, and rollback guidance.

ChatGPT / Claude

Automation script draft (Bash/Python)

AI drafts an automation script to replace a repetitive manual workflow (e.g., log collection, environment setup) for the engineer to validate and harden.

GitHub Copilot / ChatGPT

Operational checklist and SOP formatting

AI refactors a long, unstructured procedure into a clean checklist with decision points and clear ownership for on-call execution.

Claude / Notion AI

Community stories (1)

LinkedIn

My top AI tools for planning, edge cases, and PR reviews

In my previous post I listed the top 5 things I use AI for apart from writing code.
Reena Garg asked which AI tools I use for these tasks 🙏 — sharing my list👇


⭐️ Thinking partner for ideas Tool: Cursor (Plan/Ask mode) I use Plan mode to discuss a feature/design: “what am I missing?”, “what can go wrong?”, “what’s the simplest version?”, “how should I break this into steps?”, “How can we implement this?”,


⭐️ Finding edge cases Tool: Claude (Opus-4.6) I paste the context (API, flow, PR description) and ask it to list edge cases: retries, timeouts, caching, permissions, weird inputs, etc. Opus works great for any code related tasks.


⭐️ Code review before the code review Tool: CodeRabbit, GitHub Copilot, Cursor Review These tools are really great to get a review before asking for a human review. I use them on all of my PRs.


⭐️ Turning manual processes into clean steps Tool: ChatGPT / Claude This is usually a back-and-forth conversation until it becomes a clean checklist/runbook and sometimes an automation script.


⭐️ Writing clearer communication Tool: Any AI works, but I mostly use ChatGPT PR descriptions, Slack updates, incident notes — it helps turn messy thoughts into clear writing.


If you’re using any AI tools in a different way, please share — I’d love to learn and try them too 🙌

Cheers, Princi 👩🏻💻

PV
Princi VershwalOpen-source developer
Feb 23, 2026