Skip to content

Send different alerts to different channels

By default every delivery channel receives every event. Keywords let one workspace send its Leeds alerts to the Leeds team and its criticals to a pager, without creating a second workspace or a second set of rules.

Prerequisites

  • A Blecon Track workspace with alert rules
  • At least one delivery channel — see Event delivery

Step 1: Give your rules a keyword

  1. In Blecon Track, go to Rules.
  2. Open a rule and find Routing keywords.
  3. Type a keyword and press Enter, for example leeds.
  4. Save the rule.
  5. Repeat for every rule that belongs to the same site, team or shift.

The field suggests keywords already used on other rules. Pick from the list rather than retyping, so the workspace keeps one spelling per site.

Step 2: Give the channel the same keyword

  1. Go to Integrations and open the Event delivery tab.
  2. Add a channel, or click Edit on one you already have.
  3. Under Which alerts go here, add leeds.
  4. Check the line underneath: it says how many rules reach the channel and names some of them.
  5. Save the channel.

How it works

An alert carries the routing keywords on its rule, the keywords on the asset it is about, and its severity. A channel with keywords receives the alerts carrying any of them; a channel with none receives everything.

Two keywords on a channel widen it rather than narrow it. leeds and york together make a regional channel, because an alert only has to match one.

A rule you add later routes itself: give it the keyword and it reaches the same channels, with no channel to edit.

Severity needs no keyword

Every alert already carries its severity. A channel keyworded critical receives every critical alert in the workspace immediately, with nothing set on any rule.

The same is true of the keywords on your assets. If your forklifts are keyworded forklift, a channel keyworded forklift receives alerts about them whatever rule fired.

When a channel receives nothing

The editor tells you before you save. If it says no rule reaches the channel, or that nothing in the workspace uses the keyword you typed, the keyword is usually misspelled or not yet on any rule.

This is worth reading, because a channel that matches nothing looks exactly like one that is working — until someone notices an alert never arrived.

Example: three teams, one workspace

Keyword on the rules Channel Receives
leeds Slack #leeds-ops Everything from the Leeds rules
york Slack #york-ops Everything from the York rules
— Email to the duty manager, keyword critical Every critical alert, both sites
— Webhook to your own system, no keywords Everything

Questions? Contact Blecon support — we're happy to help.