Executable Runbooks from Markdown
Enforce process. Track progress. Resume anytime.

Rundown transforms static documentation into interactive, stateful CLI workflows, bridging the gap between "how-to" and "done."

• Human-Readable: Write standard Markdown.
• Agent-Readable: Write standard Markdown.
• Machine-Executable: Rundown CLI executes and enforces your process.
• Stateful: It remembers where you left off. Close your terminal, reboot your machine, and rundown status picks right back up.
• Agent-Ready: Designed to be the perfect "runtime" for AI agents (like Claude) to execute long-running, complex tasks reliably.

• Markdown-based runbooks - Define multi-step processes in readable .runbook.md files
• State persistence - Runbook progress survives context clears
• XState compilation - Runbooks compile to state machines for reliable execution
• CLI control - Simple commands to run, pass, fail, and navigate runbooks

Rundown includes a Deno-inspired security policy layer that provides explicit allowlist-based permission control:

• Default-deny - Commands not in the allowlist require user confirmation
• Granular control - Separate allow/deny lists for commands, file access, and environment variables
• Runbook overrides - Per-runbook policy configurations for different trust levels
• CI-friendly - --yes flag for non-interactive execution with pre-approved commands

Key CLI flags:

• --allow-run <cmds> - Allow specific commands
• --allow-all / --deny-all - Trust or strict mode
• --policy <file> - Custom policy file
• --non-interactive - CI mode (auto-deny)

See Security Documentation for full configuration options.

npm install -g @rundown-org/cli

Create a runbook file deploy.runbook.md.

This example uses rd echo to simulate commands so you can run it immediately without any setup.

---
name: Deploy to Production
---

## 1. Run Tests
- PASS: CONTINUE
- FAIL: STOP

```bash
rd echo npm test
```

## 2. Build Application
- PASS: CONTINUE
- FAIL: STOP

```bash
rd echo npm run build
```

## 3. Deploy
- PASS: COMPLETE
- FAIL: STOP

```bash
rd echo npm run deploy
```

Run the runbook:

rundown run deploy.runbook.md

To make this real: Simply remove rd echo from the code blocks to execute the actual npm commands.

The rd command is an alias for rundown.

• SPEC.md - Rundown format specification

See CONTRIBUTING.md for instructions on setting up the development environment and running tests.

MIT