Notification rules determine how you are notified when an incident is assigned to you. This applies to both the frequency of notifications and the methods used (push notifications, phone calls, 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:

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Best Practice

PagerDuty strongly recommends adding multiple channels for your notification rules. Push notifications have the highest reliability metrics of all delivery methods, so if a third-party SMS or voice carrier experiences an outage, having a push notification method means you can still be notified.

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 are 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 High Urgency incident notifications section, click +.
3. Enter the number of minutes PagerDuty must wait before sending the notification.
   The default is 0 minutes, which means it 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

You should set a short delay between your notification rules so you are not notified at the same time across all contact methods.

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 may 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 to receive a message whenever 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 High urgency incidents state changes, click +.
3. In the first dropdown, select which incident state you want to be notified about (acknowledged, resolved, or escalated).
4. In the second dropdown, select the contact method to notify.
5. Click Save.

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. For example, if you configure notification rules to notify you after 1 minute, and your incident is acknowledged, resolved, or escalated within that time frame (for example, by another user or via the API), 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.

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Acknowledgement reassigns before notifications

If a user not assigned to an incident acknowledges it, the incident is reassigned to them. Only the current assignee receives notifications, so the originally assigned user is not notified.

Example: If User B (not currently assigned) clicks Acknowledge on an incident assigned to User A:

1. The incident is reassigned to User B.
2. Status-change notifications are then sent only to User B (current assignee).
3. User A will not receive a notification about that acknowledgement because they are no longer assigned.

When a low-urgency incident is assigned to me

1. Navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the Low urgency incident notifications section, click +.
3. Enter the number of minutes PagerDuty must wait before sending the notification.
   The default is 0 minutes, which means it will notify you immediately.
4. Select the contact method that you want 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 Incident status updates, click +.
3. In the dropdown, select a contact method.
4. Click Save.

If you want to add additional contact methods, repeat the steps above. If you want to edit, click the , and to remove a contact method, click on the right of the contact method.

On-Call Handoff Notifications

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

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End of Life: OCHONs via SMS

As of December 10, 2024, we no longer support delivery of On-Call Handoff Notifications (OCHONs) via SMS for new users.

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Requirements

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

• You must have on-call handoff notifications configured in your User Profile (instructions below).
• You must be a target on an escalation policy.
• 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 in the Escalation Policy Basics article to enable it.

To configure on-call handoff notifications:

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under the section On-call and off-call notifications, click + to add a 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.

Shift Agent Notifications

You can configure Shift Agent notifications to update you on upcoming shift conflicts and shift coverage requests. To configure Shift Agent notifications:

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Under Shift agent notifications, click to add a new rule.
3. Select the Slack account where you want to receive notifications.
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 want to change.
3. Make the required changes.
4. Click Save.

Delete a Notification Rule

1. In the web app, navigate to User Icon My Profile Notification Rules tab.
2. Click on the right of the notification rule you want to delete.
3. Accept the confirmation.

Temporarily Disable Notifications

If you are going on a vacation or will be unavailable for a certain period, PagerDuty recommends creating an override for any schedule on which you are on-call. This ensures coverage if an incident is assigned to you when you are unavailable to address it.

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

If you want to ensure you do not receive PagerDuty notifications while on vacation or unavailable for on-call, you can also remove your notification rules.

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Note

Removing notification rules does NOT prevent incidents from being 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, 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.