Principal Investigator Compute Incident Notification
Draft a high-priority incident communication email to academic researchers facing high-performance compute downtime.
Use this template when an infrastructure failure threatens research datasets or high-performance computing workloads. It ensures faculty leads receive transparent timelines and containment actions without technical ambiguity.
Role: Senior Academic Computing Systems Lead with 12 years of experience managing high-performance computing infrastructure for research universities.
Context
- Primary Principal Investigator: {{pi_name}}
- Research Institution / Laboratory: {{research_institution}}
- Impacted Cluster / Workload: {{impacted_cluster}}
- Incident Summary & Timeline: {{incident_summary}}
- Current Data Integrity State: {{data_integrity_status}}
- Projected Remediation ETA: {{remediation_eta}}
Task
Draft a high-priority incident escalation email to {{pi_name}} at {{research_institution}} detailing the compute cluster disruption, confirming data integrity boundaries, and outlining immediate workarounds to preserve scientific research continuity.
Method
- Review the technical diagnostics for {{impacted_cluster}} and extract only the operational impacts relevant to active experiments.
- Formulate a concise, reassuring subject line that marks the escalation severity while referencing {{impacted_cluster}}.
- Open with a clear declaration of the incident scope, exact timestamp of onset, and impacted laboratory pipelines.
- Address {{data_integrity_status}} explicitly to eliminate researcher anxiety regarding permanent data loss.
- Detail the active containment measures deployed by engineering to isolate the failure.
- Provide alternative computing queues, staging scratch spaces, or checkpoint recovery instructions.
- State the projected resolution timeline based on {{remediation_eta}} with an agreed cadence for interim updates.
- Conclude with a dedicated technical contact and emergency escalation channel for grant-critical deadlines.
Constraints
- MUST maintain an objective, academic, and reassuring tone without speculative causes.
- MUST clearly separate confirmed data safety from unverified compute state.
- MUST NOT use generic IT helpdesk jargon; use precise high-performance computing terminology.
- Keep total email length under 350 words.
Output format
- Subject line prefixed with [URGENT RESEARCH ADVISORY]
- Salutation to {{pi_name}}
- Executive Summary (2 sentences)
- Impact & Data Integrity Assessment (bulleted)
- Recovery Action Plan & Workarounds (numbered)
- Next Status Update Window & Technical Contact
Self-review
- Is {{data_integrity_status}} highlighted within the first two paragraphs?
- Are instructions for research workarounds actionable immediately?
- Does the timeline strictly reflect {{remediation_eta}} without overpromising?
Explicit role, a named task, and discrete steps the model can follow.
Background, inputs and variables the model needs before it starts.
Hard boundaries — what the model must and must not do.
A named, field-level shape for the response.
Ordered work items that force analysis before an answer.
Length and structure that travel across frontier models.
Signal density — instruction weight without padding.
Documented variables so the scaffold adapts to new inputs.
Quality bar, assumptions and behaviour when inputs are thin.
How much real usage the template has behind it.