Testing a Notification Channel

Testing a Notification Channel

Before relying on a notification channel to deliver real alerts, send a test notification to confirm it's working. This article explains how.

How to Send a Test Notification

  1. In the left sidebar, click Alerts.
  2. Click Notification Channels.
  3. Find the channel you want to test.
  4. Click the ... menu (or the Test button if visible).
  5. Select Send Test Notification.

PulseAPI sends a test message to that channel immediately.

What the Test Message Looks Like

The test notification is a sample message indicating it's a test, not a real incident. It contains placeholder data so you can see the format:

  • Email — an email from PulseAPI with "Test Notification" in the subject line
  • Slack — a formatted Slack message labeled as a test with sample incident data
  • Webhook — a POST request to your URL with a test payload; the event field will be "test" and the incident data will contain sample values

Troubleshooting Failed Tests

Email: not receiving the test

  1. Check your spam or junk folder.
  2. Check that the email address on the channel is correct.
  3. For Gmail, check the Promotions and Updates tabs.

Slack: message not appearing

  1. Confirm PulseAPI is still installed in your Slack workspace (Slack → Settings → Integrations → Installed Apps).
  2. Confirm the bot has permission to post to the selected channel (check if the channel is private and the bot was invited).
  3. Try reconnecting the Slack channel: edit the channel and click Reconnect to Slack.

Webhook: test failing or no delivery

  1. Confirm your URL is publicly accessible from the internet (not localhost or an internal network address).
  2. Confirm your endpoint is returning a 2xx HTTP response.
  3. Check your endpoint's logs to see if the request arrived and what happened.
  4. Confirm your endpoint is not blocking PulseAPI's IP addresses.

After Testing

Once the test succeeds, assign the channel to an alert rule so it receives real notifications:

  1. Go to Alerts → Alert Rules.
  2. Open a rule.
  3. Add the channel to the Notification Channels field.
  4. Save the rule.

Related Articles

Still have questions? Contact support.

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