playbook (noun)
A reusable set of instructions, examples, decision criteria, and escalation conditions that captures how a particular kind of work should be handled by a person, an AI system, or both. Unlike a checklist, which preserves a sequence, a playbook guides decisions across varied situations.
Example: “The support playbook showed the AI how to distinguish a routine refund from a complaint that needed a human decision.”
Related: orchestration, guardrail, human-in-the-loop