Alert Rules
Create and manage alert rules that determine when and how you are notified about service incidents.
Alert Rules
Alert rules are the core of PulsAPI's notification system. Each rule defines what conditions trigger a notification, how severe the alert is, and what actions to take when the condition is met.
Anatomy of an alert rule
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A human-readable label (e.g., "Production outage alert"). |
| Scope | Which services or groups the rule applies to. Can be all services, a specific group, or individual services. |
| Condition | The status transition that triggers the rule (e.g., any transition to Major Outage). |
| Severity | The severity tag attached to the notification: Critical, High, Medium, or Low. |
| Actions | One or more notification channels to fire when the rule triggers (email, Slack, Discord, webhook). |
| Enabled | Toggle the rule on or off without deleting it. |
Creating an alert rule
- Navigate to Dashboard → Alerts → Rules.
- Click + New Rule.
- Enter a descriptive name for the rule.
- Choose the scope:
- All services — triggers for any service you subscribe to.
- Specific group — select a group from the dropdown.
- Specific services — search and select individual services.
- Set the condition. Select one or more target statuses:
- Degraded Performance
- Partial Outage
- Major Outage
- Any status change (catch-all)
- Choose a severity level (Critical, High, Medium, or Low).
- Under Actions, check the channels you want to notify. At least one channel must be selected.
- Click Create Rule.
Create separate rules for different severities. For example, a "Critical" rule that fires on Major Outage to Slack and email, and a "Low" rule that fires on Degraded Performance to email only.
Enabling and disabling rules
You can temporarily disable a rule without deleting it:
- Go to Dashboard → Alerts → Rules.
- Find the rule in the list.
- Toggle the Enabled switch off.
Disabled rules are grayed out in the list and will not trigger notifications. Toggle the switch back on at any time to re-enable.
Editing a rule
- Click the rule name or the pencil icon in the rules list.
- Modify any field — name, scope, condition, severity, or actions.
- Click Save Changes.
Changes take effect immediately. Any in-progress incident evaluation will use the updated rule configuration.
Deleting a rule
- Open the rule and click Delete Rule, or click the trash icon in the rules list.
- Confirm the deletion.
Deleting a rule is permanent. Previously sent notifications from this rule remain in your notification history.
Example configurations
Broad catch-all
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | All outages — email |
| Scope | All services |
| Condition | Partial Outage, Major Outage |
| Severity | High |
| Actions |
Targeted critical alert
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Payment stack critical |
| Scope | Group: "Payment Services" |
| Condition | Major Outage |
| Severity | Critical |
| Actions | Slack, Email, Discord |
Low-priority degradation
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Dev tool degradation |
| Scope | Services: GitHub, CircleCI |
| Condition | Degraded Performance |
| Severity | Low |
| Actions |