Alert Channels

Alert channels are the delivery targets of alert rules. You

create channels once, then attach them to rules on any monitor. Most channel

setups take under two minutes, and every channel supports a Send Test

button that fires a real test notification and immediately cleans it up (no

phantom PagerDuty incidents left open).

Dispatch support today: EMAIL, SLACK, DISCORD, PAGERDUTY and OPSGENIE channels are delivered by the live check pipeline. TELEGRAM, SMS and generic WEBHOOK channels can be created and attached to rules, but dispatch for these three types is not yet wired into the check pipeline — plan your paging path accordingly.

All channels are created under Dashboard → Alerts → Notification Channels.

Types marked "plan-gated" require a paid plan (checked server-side at creation).

Email

The zero-config channel — also the default. If a monitor has **no alert rules

at all**, its owner's account email receives status-change alerts

automatically. Add an Email channel to notify additional addresses.

1. Click Add Channel → Email.
2. Name it (e.g. oncall-mail).
3. Enter the recipient address.
4. Save, then Send Test.

Config shape:

{ "email": "ops@acme.com" }

Slack

Two setup paths:

Option A — OAuth (recommended): Dashboard → Integrations → **Connect

Slack**. SteadyStack asks for workspace authorization, you pick a channel, and

the channel is created for you. The config carries the team, channel, and

access token.

Option B — Incoming Webhook:

1. In Slack: Apps → Incoming Webhooks → Add to your workspace, choose the

target channel, and copy the https://hooks.slack.com/services/… URL.

1. In SteadyStack: Add Channel → Slack, name it, paste the webhook URL.
2. Save, then Send Test — you'll get a rich card with monitor, quorum

breakdown, latency, and runbook link.

Config shape:

{ "webhookUrl": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/T000/B000/xxxx" }

Discord

1. In Discord: Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook,

choose the channel, Copy Webhook URL.

1. In SteadyStack: Add Channel → Discord, name it, paste the URL.
2. Save, then Send Test — a rich embed with the failure region and HTTP

status.

Config shape:

{ "webhookUrl": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/…" }

There is also a one-click Discord OAuth flow under Integrations that

creates the channel and webhook for you.

PagerDuty (plan-gated)

Uses the PagerDuty Events API v2 with proper deduplication: a quorum-confirmed

downgrade triggers a PagerDuty incident, and recovery auto-resolves it.

1. In PagerDuty: Services → Service Directory → New Service.
2. Integrations: choose Events API v2, copy the Integration/Routing Key

(32 characters).

1. In SteadyStack: Add Channel → PagerDuty, name it, paste the routing key.
2. Save, then Send Test. SteadyStack triggers a test incident and

immediately resolves it via the same dedup key — confirm it appears and

closes in PagerDuty.

Config shape:

{ "routingKey": "R0XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" }

Opsgenie (plan-gated)

Uses the Opsgenie Alert API with alias deduplication, so repeated alerts

for the same incident update rather than duplicate, and recovery closes the

alert.

1. In Opsgenie: Settings → Integrations → Add → API integration.
2. Copy the API Key. If your account is hosted in the EU instance, note it

— the endpoint differs.

1. In SteadyStack: Add Channel → Opsgenie, name it, paste the key, and

pick the region (us or eu).

1. Save, then Send Test — a P3 test alert is created and closed

immediately.

Config shape:

{ "apiKey": "GenieKey-xxxx", "region": "us" }

Telegram

*Can be created today; dispatch wiring into the check pipeline is on the

roadmap (see the note at the top).*

1. In Telegram: start a chat with @BotFather → /newbot → copy the bot

token.

1. Get your chat ID: message the bot once, then open

https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates and read chat.id.

1. In SteadyStack: Add Channel → Telegram, paste the bot token and chat ID.

Config shape:

{ "botToken": "123456:ABC-DEF…", "chatId": "123456789" }

SMS

*Can be created today; dispatch wiring into the check pipeline is on the

roadmap.* Available in the onboarding wizard and channel form for plan-gated

accounts.

Webhook

*Can be created today; dispatch wiring into the check pipeline is on the

roadmap. For signed machine-to-machine notifications that work today, use a

Discord/Slack-compatible endpoint or the public API.*

The intended contract: each delivery includes an

X-SteadyStack-Signature header (HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body, keyed by your

channel's secret) so receivers can verify authenticity — same contract as the

webhook payload docs.

Wiring channels to monitors

Channels do nothing until an alert rule attaches them:

1. Dashboard → Alerts → Alert Rules → New Rule.
2. Pick the monitor and a trigger: STATUS_CHANGE (down/recovery), LATENCY

(threshold in ms, GT/LT), SSL_EXPIRY, DNS_WATCHDOG, or

DOMAIN_EXPIRY.

1. Select one or more channels.
2. Save — the rule is live from the next check.

Or declaratively via the REST API:

curl -X POST "https://app.steadystack.dev/api/v1/alert-rules" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pg_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "monitorId": "cm0monitor0001abcd",
    "trigger": "STATUS_CHANGE",
    "targetStatus": "DOWN",
    "channelIds": ["cm0chan0001abcd"]
  }'

<Check>

Routing advice: use Slack/Discord for single-region degradation notices and

reserve PagerDuty/SMS for quorum-confirmed global outages. This maps alert

urgency to how many independent regions agreed the service is down.

</Check>

Troubleshooting

• Test works, real alerts don't — the channel isn't attached to a rule on

that monitor, or the rule is disabled. Check Dashboard → Alerts → Alert Rules.

• 403 when creating PagerDuty/webhook channels — plan gate

(pagerduty_integration / custom_webhooks_pagerduty feature flags).

• Slack test never arrives — webhook URLs are workspace- and

channel-bound; if the Slack app was removed or the channel deleted, the URL

silently dies. Re-create the webhook.

• Duplicate PagerDuty incidents — two channels pointing at the same

service's routing key. PagerDuty dedups by dedup_key per routing key, so

remove the duplicate channel.