Crisis Communication Playbook

Generate a crisis communication plan with holding statements, stakeholder messaging, media responses, and internal comms templates.

3,891 stars

byopenclaw

Complexity: easy

View on GitHub Installation ↓

About this skill

This AI agent skill is designed to rapidly draft a complete crisis communication plan. It provides a structured response framework covering immediate public statements (holding statements), detailed stakeholder engagement strategies, prepared media Q&As, internal employee briefings, platform-specific social media responses, and a critical communication timeline. The skill is particularly useful for organizations facing a wide array of crises, such as data breaches, service outages, product recalls, executive issues, negative press, or regulatory investigations. It applies the 'ACE model' (Acknowledge, Commit, Explain) and adheres to tone guidelines emphasizing empathy, ownership, and frequent updates. By leveraging this skill, users can ensure a consistent, empathetic, and responsible communication approach during critical incidents, helping to mitigate reputational damage and maintain trust. It acts as a prompt accelerator, providing a solid foundation for crisis response that can then be refined with specific organizational details.

Best use case

This skill is invaluable for PR professionals, communications teams, business leaders, and anyone responsible for an organization's public image and internal cohesion during a crisis. It helps quickly establish a strategic communication posture, saving critical time and reducing the stress associated with urgent response formulation, ultimately protecting brand reputation.

Generate a crisis communication plan with holding statements, stakeholder messaging, media responses, and internal comms templates.

A detailed, actionable crisis communication plan encompassing severity assessment, draft messages for various audiences, and a timed communication schedule.

Practical example

Example input

We have a major customer-facing service outage that's impacting core functionalities. Draft crisis comms focusing on stakeholder updates and a media response.

Example output

```
Crisis Communication Plan Draft: Service Outage
Severity Assessment: P2 (Significant operational impact)

Holding Statement:
"We are currently experiencing a service interruption affecting our [specific service/product]. Our teams are aware and working urgently to restore full functionality. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will provide further updates shortly."

Stakeholder Matrix:
- Customers: Website banner, in-app notification, email update (what's happening, impact, restoration efforts, next update time).
- Employees: Internal briefing on talking points, how to handle customer inquiries, support channels.
- Media: Initial holding statement, prepared Q&A for common questions on outage cause, duration, impact.
- Partners: Direct email update on service status and potential impact on shared operations.

Media Q&A (excerpts):
Q: What caused the outage? A: We are still investigating the root cause but are focused on restoration.
Q: When will service be restored? A: Our current estimate is [X hours/minutes], but we will update immediately if that changes.

Internal Comms:
Subject: Urgent - Service Outage Update
Team, we are experiencing a significant service outage...

Social Media Response:
Twitter: "We're experiencing a service interruption. Our team is working to resolve this ASAP. Updates to follow. Thank you for your patience." [Link to status page]

Timeline:
Hour 0-1: Issue identified, internal team mobilized, initial holding statement drafted/approved.
Hour 1-2: Holding statement deployed (website, social), internal employee briefing.
Hour 2-4: Draft customer email, media Q&A, prepare for first public update...
```

When to use this skill

When your organization faces a major public relations crisis or negative media event.
Upon discovery of a data breach, security incident, or service outage impacting customers.
To prepare a structured communication plan for a product recall or safety issue.
When needing to draft immediate holding statements and comprehensive stakeholder messages under pressure.

When not to use this skill

For routine, non-critical business announcements or everyday communication tasks.
When the 'crisis' is a minor internal issue with no external impact or urgency.
As a replacement for legal counsel or human strategists in highly complex or sensitive situations.
For personal or individual communication needs unrelated to organizational crises.

Installation

Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

$curl -o ~/.claude/skills/afrexai-crisis-comms/SKILL.md --create-dirs "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openclaw/skills/main/skills/1kalin/afrexai-crisis-comms/SKILL.md"

Manual Installation

Download SKILL.md from GitHub
Place it in .claude/skills/afrexai-crisis-comms/SKILL.md inside your project
Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill

How Crisis Communication Playbook Compares

Feature / Agent	Crisis Communication Playbook	Standard Approach
Platform Support	Not specified	Limited / Varies
Context Awareness	High	Baseline
Installation Complexity	easy	N/A

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this skill do?

Generate a crisis communication plan with holding statements, stakeholder messaging, media responses, and internal comms templates.

How difficult is it to install?

The installation complexity is rated as easy. You can find the installation instructions above.

Where can I find the source code?

You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.

Related Guides

Best AI Skills for Claude

Explore the best AI skills for Claude and Claude Code across coding, research, workflow automation, documentation, and agent operations.

ChatGPT vs Claude for Agent Skills

Compare ChatGPT and Claude for AI agent skills across coding, writing, research, and reusable workflow execution.

AI Agents for Startups

Explore AI agent skills for startup validation, product research, growth experiments, documentation, and fast execution with small teams.

SKILL.md Source

# Crisis Communication Playbook

Generate a crisis communication plan with holding statements, stakeholder messaging, media responses, and internal comms templates.

## Usage

Tell the agent:
- "We have a data breach — draft crisis comms"
- "Customer-facing outage — prepare stakeholder updates"
- "PR crisis — generate a response framework"

## What It Produces

1. **Severity Assessment** — P1 (existential) through P4 (minor) classification
2. **Holding Statement** — Immediate public response (deploy in <30 minutes)
3. **Stakeholder Matrix** — Who needs to know, what they need to hear, when
4. **Media Q&A** — Prepared answers for likely journalist questions
5. **Internal Comms** — Employee briefing, leadership talking points
6. **Social Media Response** — Platform-specific messaging
7. **Timeline** — Hour-by-hour communication schedule for first 72 hours
8. **Post-Crisis Review** — Lessons learned template

## Crisis Types Covered

- Data breaches and security incidents
- Service outages and technical failures
- Product recalls or safety issues
- Executive departures or legal actions
- Negative press or social media storms
- Regulatory investigations
- Financial restatements

## Framework

Every crisis response follows the **ACE model**:
- **Acknowledge** — Confirm awareness, show empathy
- **Commit** — State what you're doing about it
- **Explain** — Provide context without making excuses

## Tone Guidelines

- Human first, corporate second
- Specific commitments over vague promises
- Take ownership — never deflect blame
- Update frequently — silence is the enemy

3891

from openclaw/skills

You are a personal productivity architect. Your job: help the user design, execute, and optimize their daily system so they consistently ship high-impact work while protecting energy and avoiding burnout.

Workflow & Productivity