Notification Rules

Notification rules determine how you will be notified when an incident is assigned to you. This applies to both the frequency of when you’re notified, as well as which methods will be used (push, phone call, SMS, email, and/or Slack). You can configure different sets of rules for high and low-urgency incidents, as well as when incidents change.

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User Permissions

• All users can create, edit and delete their own notification rules.
• Admins and Global Admins can create, edit and delete notification rules for all users except the Account Owner. The Account Owner can create, edit and delete notification rules of all users.

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Requirement

You must first add contact methods to your user profile to configure notification rules.

The following types of notification rules are available:

• When someone invites me to respond to an incident: Notification rule for being added as a responder to an incident.
• When a high-urgency incident is assigned to me: Notification rules for high-urgency incident assignments.
• When a high-urgency incident assigned to me changes: Notification rules for assigned high-urgency incidents that are acknowledged, escalated or resolved.
• When a low-urgency incident is assigned to me: Notification rules for low-urgency incident assignments.
• When an incident I am subscribed to has a status update: Notification rules for status updates on incidents you are subscribed to.
• Before I go on-call or off-call: Notification rules to update you when you are about to go on or off-call.

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Best Practice

We strongly recommend adding multiple channels for your notification rules. Push notifications have the highest reliability metrics of all delivery methods, so in the event that a 3rd-party SMS or voice carrier has an outage, having a push contact method means we will still be able to notify you.

When someone invites me to respond to an incident

When a user requests your help as a responder on an incident, PagerDuty sends
responder notifications using your high-urgency notification rules.

When you receive a responder notification, you’ll be prompted to accept or decline the request.

When a high-urgency incident is assigned to me

Create notification rules for high-urgency incident assignments.

1. Navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the section When a high-urgency incident is assigned to me... click Add Notification Rule.
3. Enter the number of minutes PagerDuty should wait before sending the notification.

• The default is 0 minutes, which will notify you immediately.

4. Select the contact method that you would like to be notified on.

• You can use the same contact method in multiple notification rules.

5. Click Save.

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Stagger Notification Rules

We recommend setting a short delay between your notification rules so that you are not notified at the same time on each contact method.

For example:

• A push notification immediately (0 minutes) after assignment
• A phone call notification after 1 minute
• A Slack notification after 2 minutes
• An email notification after 3 minutes
• An SMS notification after 4 minutes

Note: If a user sets a delay on a notification rule that is greater than an escalation policy's escalation timeout, and an incident escalates to the same user at the next escalation level, the user can expect to receive notifications from the previous escalation level once the configured delay period elapses.

When a high-urgency incident assigned to me changes

You can create notification rules so that you receive a message any time one of your high-urgency incidents changes status (i.e., acknowledged, resolved or escalated).

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the section When any of my high-urgency incidents change... click Add Notification Rule.
3. In the first dropdown, select which incident state you’d like to be notified about:

• Available choices are acknowledged, resolved or escalated.

4. In the second dropdown, select the contact method to notify.
5. Click Save.

In order for PagerDuty to deliver a notification related to a status change on one of your incidents, you must have already received a standard high-urgency notification on that channel. As an example, if you configure notification rules to notify you after 1 minute, and your incident is acknowledged, resolved or escalated within that time frame (by another user or via the API, for example), you should not expect to receive a notification related to the status change.

Additionally, if you acknowledge or resolve your own incident, you will not receive a notification related to the status change, even if you have a rule configured.

When a low-urgency incident is assigned to me

1. Navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the section When a low-urgency incident is assigned to me... click Add Notification Rule.
3. Enter the number of minutes PagerDuty should wait before sending the notification.

• The default is 0 minutes, which would notify you immediately.

4. Select the contact method that you would like to be notified on.

• You can use the same contact method in multiple notification rules.

5. Click Save.

When an incident I am subscribed to has a status update

Configure notification preferences for status updates when subscribed to an incident.

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the section When an incident I am subscribed to has a status update..., click Add Notification Rule.
3. In the dropdown, select a contact method and click Save.

Feel free to repeat the steps above for other contact methods.

Multiple methods can be configured by repeating this step. If you would like to edit or remove a contact method, click the or the X to the right of the method.

On-Call Handoff Notifications

On-call handoff notifications (OCHONs) can notify you up to 48 hours before you go on-call, off-call, or both. These notifications can only be sent as a push notification or email.

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End of Life: OCHONs via SMS

We will no longer support delivery of on-call hand off notifications (OCHONs) via SMS for new users.

• If you have already configured your OCHONs to deliver via push or email contact methods, we will stop delivery of SMS notifications on September 10, 2024.
• If you haven't configured your OCHONs to deliver via alternate contact methods, we will stop delivery of SMS notifications on December 10, 2024. Please follow the instructions below to configure push and/or email notification methods for your OCHONs.

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Requirements

To send OCHONs, the following three conditions must be met:

1. You must have on-call handoff notifications configured in your User Profile (instructions below).
2. You must be a target on an escalation policy.
3. The escalation policy must have OCHONs turned on. If the escalation policy is attached to a service, the OCHONs will always be turned on. If it is not attached to a service, follow instructions to turn them on in our Escalation Policy Basics article.

To configure on-call handoff notifications:

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the section Before I go on-call or off-call..., click Add Notification Rule.
3. Enter the following information:
   • The number of hours before your shift that you would like to be notified.
   • Whether you want to be notified before going on-call, off-call or both.
   • The contact method to notify (mobile app push notification or email).
4. Click Save.

Edit a Notification Rule

Edit any notification rule with these steps:

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Click to the right of the notification rule you’d like to change.
3. Make the required changes and click Save.

Delete a Notification Rule

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Click to the right of the notification rule you’d like to delete.
   • You’ll be prompted with a confirmation.
3. Accept the confirmation.

Temporarily Disable Notifications

If you go on vacation or will be unavailable for a time we recommend creating an override for any schedule for which you are on-call. This ensures that there is coverage if an incident is assigned to you while you are not available to address the incident.

You can create overrides in the PagerDuty website, mobile app, or via our API.

If you want to make sure that you do not receive any PagerDuty notifications when you go on vacation or are unavailable to be on-call, you may also remove your notification rules.

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Heads up

Removing notification rules does NOT mean that incidents cannot be assigned to you. Incidents can still be assigned and reassigned to you even if you do not have any notification rules as long as you are still on-call on a schedule or part of an escalation policy. By deleting your notification rules, you will simply avoid being notified of these incidents.

Also, note that removing your notification rules will NOT remove your contact methods. When you are ready to receive notifications again, you can go back to your profile page and re-add notification rules.