Error Budget Policy

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---
name: Error Budget Policy
description: Defines and applies an SLO error-budget policy that gates feature work versus reliability work based on remaining budget. Use when setting up SLOs or when high burn rate lacks a formal team response protocol.
---

# Error Budget Policy

An error budget without a policy is a number nobody acts on. The policy converts budget state into team behavior automatically, without requiring a manager decision each time.

## Define the Budget

Error budget = (1 - SLO target) x window duration.

Example: 99.9% SLO over 30 days = 0.1% x 30 days x 24 hours = 43.2 minutes of allowed downtime.

Track budget as a percentage remaining, not as raw minutes. 'Budget: 34% remaining' is actionable. 'Budget: 14.7 minutes remaining' is not.

## Four Policy States

Define exactly four states and the automatic team behavior each one triggers.

### Green (budget above 50%)

Feature work proceeds at full velocity. No reliability-only sprints required. On-call improvements are encouraged but not mandatory. Treat this state as the reward for good reliability work.
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