> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://helpdocs.getthread.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Messenger Outage Banner

> Draft, update, and retire the Messenger banner clients see during an incident — factual wording without cause speculation, and hard expiry discipline so stale banners don't outlive the outage. Use when an incident needs (or no longer needs) a banner.

<Info>
  **Category:** Voice & Messenger · [View source ↗](https://github.com/bryan-getthread/skills/blob/main/skills/voice-and-messenger/messenger-outage-banner/SKILL.md)
</Info>

**Connectors:** none — works with Thread out of the box

**Role:** [Dispatcher](/start-here/roles/dispatcher)

**Outcome:** Faster Resolution & Response

**When to use:** "Put up a Messenger banner about the M365 outage" / "update the banner — we have an ETA now" / incident resolved, retire the banner / a banner hygiene check ("is anything stale showing right now?").

**Run it:** on the incident ticket — run it manually (not a Flow; it needs a human confirming facts and posting the copy).

## Prompt

```
During an incident the Messenger banner is the highest-leverage sentence the MSP publishes:
it deflects the flood of duplicate chats — but only while it's accurate. Write banner copy to
the outage-notification standard and enforce the discipline of taking it down.

1. Read the incident ticket(s) for confirmed facts only: what's impacted, who's affected,
   current status, next-update time.

2. Draft banner copy to defensive-writing rules, compressed for a banner:
   - One or two sentences, ~200 characters — a banner is a headline, not a bulletin.
   - State: what is affected, that the desk knows and is working on it, and what the client
     should do ("no need to open a ticket for this" is the whole deflection value — include
     it when true).
   - No cause speculation, no vendor blame, no "should be fixed by <time>" unless a restore
     time is confirmed; prefer "next update by <time>".
   - No jargon; write in the language(s) the desk's clients chat in.

3. Set the expiry plan at creation time — a banner without a removal plan is a future lie:
   every banner gets a review-by time (default: the next-update time, never more than a few
   hours out). Record it on the incident ticket: "BANNER LIVE: '<text>' — review/remove by
   <time>." Offer to schedule the review so removal has an owner.

4. Publishing: Thread's banner is configured in the Messenger/workspace admin settings —
   there is no way for this skill to set it. Output the exact copy plus scope (all clients vs.
   affected clients, where the tenant supports targeting) for the admin to paste, and say
   precisely where it goes.

5. Updates: new confirmed facts → new banner text via the same rules; each update replaces,
   never stacks. Update the BANNER LIVE note.

6. Retirement: when the incident resolves, the banner comes down IMMEDIATELY — before the
   all-clear email if necessary. Optionally one short-lived "resolved" banner with its own
   expiry (hours, not days). Note the takedown: "BANNER REMOVED: <time>."

Guardrails: accuracy beats reassurance — a banner that says "resolved" while users are still
down does more damage than no banner. Expiry discipline is non-negotiable; if the review time
passes with no human action, the correct escalation is a flag on the incident ticket, not
silence. Only confirmed facts from the incident ticket go in the banner; nothing from chat
rumor or unverified vendor status pages. This skill cannot verify the banner is actually up or
down — it drafts, records, and reminds; say so rather than claiming the banner state changed.
One incident, one banner. Never convert the recommendation into a completed action: the note
says "copy ready for admin", not "banner posted", until a human confirms.
```


## Related topics

- [Business Hours, Holidays, and Custom Closures](/inbox/holidays-and-custom-closures.md)
- [Outage Notification](/skill-library/communication/outage-notification.md)
- [How to Upgrade your Legacy Teams App](/messenger/how-to-upgrade-your-legacy-teams-app.md)