Notifications & Escalations
Deliver timely alerts to the right people when monitors change state.
Upstat supports configurable notifications for monitor transitions like Up → Down or Up → Partial. These alerts are designed to raise awareness when something goes wrong—not just for incident participants, but for teams who need to respond immediately.
When Notifications Are Sent
Notifications are triggered based on monitor status transitions:
- Up → Partial
- Partial → Down
- Down → Partial
- Partial → Up
- Up → Down
These transitions are reliable because they occur only after confirmation checks have evaluated the full set of regional monitor results.
Notification Channels
Upstat can send monitor alerts through:
- Email (configurable per user or role)
- Slack (coming soon)
- Other platforms (via Automations or integration tools)
Each alert includes:
- The affected monitor
- Current status (Up, Partial, Down)
- Timestamp of the transition
- Optional linked catalog entities (like services)
Future integrations (Teams, Discord, etc.) will expand this further.
Escalation vs. Participation Notifications
It’s important to distinguish between two kinds of alerting:
Monitor Escalations (what this doc covers): These alerts notify responders that something needs attention. They are system-triggered and independent of any incident.
Participant Notifications (used during incidents): These notify individuals when they are tagged, assigned, or involved in an incident conversation. Their purpose is to keep people in the loop on a specific situation—not to alert them that something is broken.
There may be overlap (e.g., someone gets a monitor alert and is later tagged in an incident), but these systems serve different functions and should be tuned accordingly to avoid alert fatigue.
Reducing Noise
To prevent alert fatigue:
- Use delays in Automations for Partial transitions
- Filter alerts by monitor tag, catalog entity, or project
- Combine transitions with escalation policies or routing logic (coming soon)
- Align your alerting strategy with your incident response workflow
Summary
- Monitor status transitions trigger alerts across your preferred channels
- Escalation notifications are system-level alerts, separate from participant updates
- Automations and filters give you control over who gets notified and when
- A clear separation of alert types helps reduce noise and improve signal quality
Learn more