How Notification Channels Work

How Notification Channels Work

A notification channel is a destination where PulseAPI sends alert notifications when an incident is created or resolved. This article explains what channels are, how they relate to alert rules, and the supported channel types.

What Is a Notification Channel?

When an alert rule fires, PulseAPI needs to know where to send the notification. That destination is a notification channel.

You create notification channels independently from alert rules. Once a channel is set up, you can assign it to one or more alert rules. When a rule fires, PulseAPI delivers a notification to every channel assigned to that rule.

Supported Channel Types

Type Description
Email Sends an alert email to a specified address. Auto-verified on creation.
Slack Posts an alert message to a Slack channel via OAuth integration.
Webhook Sends a JSON payload via HTTP POST to a URL you provide. Use this to integrate with any tool (PagerDuty, Opsgenie, custom systems, etc.).

Note: Slack and Webhook channels are available on Starter, Professional, and Team plans. Free plan users can only create Email channels.

How Channels Connect to Alert Rules

Channels and alert rules are separate objects. The connection is made inside the alert rule:

  1. You create a channel (e.g., an email address or a Slack workspace connection).
  2. When creating or editing an alert rule, you select which channels that rule should notify.
  3. A single channel can be assigned to multiple rules. A single rule can notify multiple channels.

This means you can, for example:

  • Have a "critical Slack channel" that only receives Critical-priority rule notifications
  • Have an email channel that receives every alert
  • Have a webhook channel for PagerDuty that only receives High and Critical rules

Channel Status: Active vs. Inactive

Each channel has an Active / Inactive toggle. Inactive channels do not receive notifications, even if assigned to active alert rules. Use this to temporarily silence a channel without deleting it or unassigning it from rules.

Testing a Channel

Before relying on a channel in production, send a test notification to confirm delivery. See Testing a Notification Channel.

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Still have questions? Contact support.

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