Set Up Notification Channels

This guide covers how to create and configure notification channels. Once channels are set up, you can assign them to check rules (see Create Check Rules) or use label-based routing (see Route Check Rule Notifications) to direct alerts automatically.

Create a Notification Channel

Once created, notification channels appears in the notification channels list and become available for assignment to check rules.

1. Navigate to Settings → Notification Channels.
2. Click Add.
3. Select the channel type from the available integrations and configure the integration settings.

Configure Channel Settings

Each notification channel type has specific configuration requirements.

Click on an integration above to view detailed setup instructions for that channel type.

Common Settings

All notification channels support these common settings:

• Name: Unique identifier for the channel
• Enabled/Disabled: Toggle to temporarily disable notifications without deleting the channel
• Frequency: Rate limiting to prevent notification storms (optional)

Channel-Specific Settings

Integration-specific settings vary by channel type.

For example:

• Slack: Webhook URL, channel name, mention settings
• PagerDuty: Integration key, routing key, severity mapping
• Email: SMTP configuration, recipient addresses, subject templates
• Webhook: URL, authentication headers, payload format

Refer to each integration's documentation for complete configuration details.

Assign Channels to Check Rules

After creating notification channels, assign them to check rules in two ways:

1. Direct assignment: When creating or editing a check rule, select channels in the Notifications section. See Create Check Rules for step-by-step instructions.
2. Label-based routing: Configure channels to automatically receive alerts based on label matching. See Route Check Rule Notifications for routing configuration.

Critical-Only Filtering

When assigning a channel to a check rule, you can include the dash0.failed_check.max_status=criticalCopy trigger to limit notifications to critical severity alerts.

This is useful for high-priority channels, such as PagerDuty, where you want to reduce noise and only notify for the most severe issues.

Test Notification Channels

After configuring a notification channel, test it to verify the integration is working:

1. Navigate to Settings → Notification Channels.
2. Locate the channel you want to test.
3. Click Send test notification.
4. Verify the test notification appears in the destination (Slack channel, email inbox, PagerDuty, etc.)

If the test fails, check your integration credentials, network connectivity, and channel-specific settings.

Further Reading

• About Alert Monitoring — Overview of Dash0's alerting capabilities and how check rules monitor your systems.
• Create Check Rules — Set up check rules to monitor metrics, logs, spans, and web events using PromQL expressions and threshold values.
• Investigate Failed Checks — Troubleshoot failed checks by exploring the underlying telemetry and identifying root causes.
• Route Check Rule Notifications — Use label-based routing to direct alerts to the right teams automatically.
• Optimize Check Rule Messages with Templates — Variables and template functions for creating dynamic, contextual alert messages.