Operator Change Rehearsal

An operator rehearsal turns a proposed command into a reviewable state transition. Use the interactive rehearsal before a consequential libvirt change to expose missing evidence without touching a daemon.

Establish the change envelope

Name the initial state, target state, affected guests, shared host resources, and dependent services. A command without this boundary is only syntax; it does not explain what success means or who absorbs failure.

Require evidence before action

Preflight statements must be backed by observable facts: compatible capabilities, reachable storage, available capacity, console access, and a named rollback owner. If one control is missing, halt the transition instead of treating uncertainty as approval.

Preserve the rollback path

Rollback is a state and ownership decision, not merely a reverse command. Record the last safe state, the evidence that would trigger reversal, the operator authorized to act, and any point after which rollback becomes restoration.

Generate the handoff

A durable handoff includes the intended transition, action, verification commands, rollback path, and explicit result. The rehearsal output is safe to copy into a change record because it states that execution was not performed.

Rehearsal is not execution

The browser surface is static and never connects to libvirt. It teaches change discipline and produces a review artifact; execution remains an authenticated operator action on the correct control plane.