Notification Integration

AWX can send notifications about job status, workflow events, and approvals to various communication platforms and services. Notifications help teams stay informed about automation activities without constantly monitoring the AWX interface.

Overview

Notification templates define how and where AWX sends alerts. Each template:

Specifies a notification type (Slack, email, webhook, etc.)
Contains configuration details (credentials, recipients, endpoints)
Can have custom message templates for different events
Can be attached to various AWX objects at different trigger points

Supported Notification Types

AWX supports the following notification services:

Email - SMTP email notifications
Slack - Slack channel messages
Webhook - Custom HTTP/HTTPS endpoints
PagerDuty - Incident management alerts
Mattermost - Self-hosted team messaging
Rocket.Chat - Open source team communication
IRC - Internet Relay Chat messages
Grafana - Grafana annotations
Twilio - SMS text messages
AWS SNS - Amazon Simple Notification Service

Notification Workflow

Create Notification Template - Define the notification channel and configuration
Attach to Resources - Associate with job templates, projects, organizations, etc.
Set Triggers - Choose when to send (start, success, error, approval)
Customize Messages - Optionally override default message templates
Test - Verify configuration before production use

Email Notifications

Configuration

Create an email notification template:

{
  "name": "Email Notification",
  "description": "Production job alerts",
  "organization": 1,
  "notification_type": "email",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "host": "smtp.example.com",
    "port": 587,
    "username": "awx@example.com",
    "password": "smtp-password",
    "use_tls": true,
    "use_ssl": false,
    "sender": "awx-notifications@example.com",
    "recipients": [
      "team@example.com",
      "oncall@example.com"
    ],
    "timeout": 30
  }
}

SMTP Settings

Common SMTP Configurations:

# Gmail
Host: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587
Use TLS: true
Username: your-email@gmail.com
Password: app-specific-password

# Office 365
Host: smtp.office365.com
Port: 587
Use TLS: true
Username: your-email@company.com
Password: your-password

# AWS SES
Host: email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Port: 587
Use TLS: true
Username: <AWS-SMTP-Username>
Password: <AWS-SMTP-Password>

# SendGrid
Host: smtp.sendgrid.net
Port: 587
Use TLS: true
Username: apikey
Password: <sendgrid-api-key>

Email Message Format

Email notifications include:

Subject: Job name and status
Body: Detailed job information including:
- Job ID and URL
- Execution time
- Inventory and credentials used
- Play recap and host status
- Error details (for failures)

Slack Notifications

Setup

Create Slack Bot:
- Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
- Create New App → From Scratch
- Add Bot Token Scopes: chat:write, chat:write.public
- Install App to Workspace
- Copy Bot User OAuth Token
Configure in AWX:

{
  "name": "Slack Notifications",
  "notification_type": "slack",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "token": "xoxb-your-bot-token",
    "channels": [
      "#deployments",
      "#alerts"
    ]
  }
}

Slack Features

Channel Targeting:

{
  "channels": [
    "#general",           // Public channel
    "private-channel",    // Private channel (bot must be member)
    "@username"           // Direct message
  ]
}

Thread Replies:

{
  "channels": [
    "#deployments,1234567890.123456"  // Channel,ThreadTS
  ]
}

Color Coding: Messages automatically use colors based on job status:

Green for success
Red for failure
Yellow for started/running

Slack Message Format

Slack notifications are concise:

🚀 Job #123 'Deploy Application' succeeded
Inventory: Production
Elapsed: 2m 34s
View: https://awx.example.com/#/jobs/123

Webhook Notifications

Configuration

{
  "name": "Webhook Notification",
  "notification_type": "webhook",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "url": "https://api.example.com/awx/webhook",
    "http_method": "POST",
    "headers": {
      "Authorization": "Bearer your-api-token",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "X-AWX-Event": "job_notification"
    },
    "username": "",
    "password": "",
    "disable_ssl_verification": false
  }
}

Webhook Payload

AWX sends detailed JSON payload:

{
  "id": 123,
  "name": "Deploy Application",
  "url": "https://awx.example.com/#/jobs/playbook/123",
  "created_by": "admin",
  "started": "2026-03-04T12:00:00.000Z",
  "finished": "2026-03-04T12:05:00.000Z",
  "status": "successful",
  "elapsed": 300.5,
  "job_explanation": "",
  "execution_node": "awx-task-1",
  "inventory": "Production",
  "project": "Main Project",
  "playbook": "site.yml",
  "credential": "SSH Key",
  "limit": "",
  "extra_vars": {},
  "hosts": {
    "ok": 10,
    "changed": 5,
    "dark": 0,
    "failures": 0,
    "rescued": 0,
    "ignored": 0,
    "skipped": 2
  }
}

HTTP Methods

Supported methods:

POST - Most common, sends data in request body
PUT - Alternative for RESTful APIs

Authentication Methods

Bearer Token (Headers):

{
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer token123"
  }
}

Basic Auth (Username/Password):

{
  "username": "api-user",
  "password": "api-password"
}

API Key (Headers):

{
  "headers": {
    "X-API-Key": "your-api-key"
  }
}

Webhook Examples

Microsoft Teams:

{
  "url": "https://outlook.office.com/webhook/...",
  "http_method": "POST"
}

Discord:

{
  "url": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/...",
  "http_method": "POST"
}

Custom API:

{
  "url": "https://api.myapp.com/events",
  "http_method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "X-Signature": "hmac-signature",
    "X-Event-Type": "awx.job.complete"
  }
}

PagerDuty Notifications

Setup

Create PagerDuty Service:
- Configuration → Services → New Service
- Integration Type: “Events API V2”
- Copy Integration Key
Get API Token:
- Configuration → API Access → Create API Key
- Copy token (starts with “u+” or “y+”)
Configure in AWX:

{
  "name": "PagerDuty Alerts",
  "notification_type": "pagerduty",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "subdomain": "your-company",
    "token": "your-api-token",
    "service_key": "your-integration-key",
    "client_name": "AWX Production"
  }
}

PagerDuty Incidents

Notifications create incidents with:

Description: Job name and status
Details: Full job metadata
Client: Identified by client_name
Severity: Based on job outcome

Mattermost Notifications

Setup

Enable Incoming Webhooks:
- System Console → Integrations → Custom Integrations
- Enable Incoming Webhooks
- Optionally enable username/icon overrides
Create Webhook:
- Main Menu → Integrations → Incoming Webhook
- Add Incoming Webhook
- Select channel and copy URL
Configure in AWX:

{
  "name": "Mattermost Notifications",
  "notification_type": "mattermost",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "url": "https://mattermost.example.com/hooks/...",
    "username": "AWX Bot",
    "channel": "#deployments",
    "icon_url": "https://example.com/awx-icon.png"
  }
}

Rocket.Chat Notifications

Setup

Create Integration:
- Administration → Integrations → New Integration
- Type: Incoming WebHook
- Enable: Yes
- Copy Webhook URL
Configure in AWX:

{
  "name": "Rocket.Chat Notifications",
  "notification_type": "rocketchat",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "url": "https://rocketchat.example.com/hooks/...",
    "username": "AWX",
    "icon_url": "https://example.com/awx-icon.png"
  }
}

IRC Notifications

Configuration

{
  "name": "IRC Notifications",
  "notification_type": "irc",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "server": "irc.libera.chat",
    "port": 6697,
    "nickname": "awx-bot",
    "password": "server-password",
    "targets": [
      "#deployments",
      "ops-user"
    ],
    "use_ssl": true
  }
}

IRC Behavior

Bot connects, delivers messages, then disconnects
Supports both channels (#channel) and direct messages
SSL/TLS supported
No Nickserv identification (use SASL-capable IRC bouncer if needed)

Grafana Notifications

Setup

Create API Key:
- Configuration → API Keys → Add API Key
- Role: Editor (for creating annotations)
- Copy key
Configure in AWX:

{
  "name": "Grafana Annotations",
  "notification_type": "grafana",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "grafana_url": "https://grafana.example.com",
    "grafana_key": "your-api-key",
    "dashboardId": 1,
    "panelId": 2,
    "tags": "awx,deployment,production",
    "disable_ssl_verification": false
  }
}

Grafana Annotations

Notifications create region annotations:

Time Range: Job start to finish
Text: Job name and status
Tags: Custom tags for filtering
Scope: Dashboard, panel, or global

Twilio SMS Notifications

Setup

Create Twilio Account
Get Phone Number for sending
Create Messaging Service in Twilio Console
Get Credentials from Account Settings

Configuration

{
  "name": "SMS Alerts",
  "notification_type": "twilio",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "account_sid": "ACxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "account_token": "your-auth-token",
    "from_number": "+15551234567",
    "to_numbers": [
      "+15559876543",
      "+15555555555"
    ]
  }
}

SMS Format

SMS notifications are brief:

AWX: Job #123 'Deploy App' succeeded in 2m34s

Setup

Create SNS Topic:

aws sns create-topic --name awx-notifications

Subscribe Endpoints:

aws sns subscribe \
  --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:region:account:awx-notifications \
  --protocol email \
  --notification-endpoint team@example.com

Create IAM User/Role with SNS publish permissions

Configuration

{
  "name": "AWS SNS Alerts",
  "notification_type": "awssns",
  "notification_configuration": {
    "aws_access_key_id": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
    "aws_secret_access_key": "wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCY",
    "region": "us-east-1",
    "topic_arn": "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:awx-notifications"
  }
}

Attaching Notifications

Job Templates

Attach notifications to job templates:

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/job_templates/1/notification_templates_success/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": 5}'

Notification Triggers

Available trigger points:

notification_templates_started - Job starts
notification_templates_success - Job succeeds
notification_templates_error - Job fails
notification_templates_approval - Workflow approval events

Organizations

Attach to organizations for all contained jobs:

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/organizations/1/notification_templates_error/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": 5}'

Projects

Notify on project updates:

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/projects/1/notification_templates_error/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": 5}'

Inventory Sources

Notify on inventory sync:

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/inventory_sources/1/notification_templates_error/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": 5}'

Custom Message Templates

Jinja2 Templating

Customize notification messages using Jinja2 templates:

{
  "messages": {
    "started": {
      "message": "Job {{ job.id }} started on {{ job.execution_node }}",
      "body": "{{ job.name }} is running\nInventory: {{ job.summary_fields.inventory.name }}"
    },
    "success": {
      "message": "🎉 {{ job.name }} completed in {{ job.elapsed }}s",
      "body": "Completed successfully with {{ job.host_status_counts.ok }} OK hosts"
    },
    "error": {
      "message": "⚠️ {{ job.name }} failed!",
      "body": "Error: {{ job.job_explanation }}\nView details: {{ url }}"
    }
  }
}

Available Template Variables

{# Job Information #}
{{ job.id }}                          # Job ID
{{ job.name }}                        # Job template name
{{ job.status }}                      # succeeded, failed, running
{{ job.url }}                         # API URL
{{ job.started }}                     # Start timestamp
{{ job.finished }}                    # Finish timestamp
{{ job.elapsed }}                     # Elapsed time in seconds
{{ job.playbook }}                    # Playbook name
{{ job.limit }}                       # Host limit
{{ job.execution_node }}              # Execution node

{# Host Status #}
{{ job.host_status_counts.ok }}       # Successful hosts
{{ job.host_status_counts.changed }}  # Changed hosts
{{ job.host_status_counts.failed }}   # Failed hosts
{{ job.host_status_counts.dark }}     # Unreachable hosts

{# Summary Fields #}
{{ job.summary_fields.inventory.name }}
{{ job.summary_fields.project.name }}
{{ job.summary_fields.created_by.username }}
{{ job.summary_fields.instance_group.name }}

{# UI URL #}
{{ url }}                             # Link to job in UI

{# Workflow Approval #}
{{ approval_node_name }}              # Approval node name
{{ approval_status }}                 # approved, denied, timed_out
{{ workflow_url }}                    # Link to workflow

Workflow Approval Messages

{
  "messages": {
    "workflow_approval": {
      "running": {
        "message": "Approval needed: {{ approval_node_name }}",
        "body": "Workflow {{ job.name }} is waiting for approval\nRespond at: {{ workflow_url }}"
      },
      "approved": {
        "message": "Approved: {{ approval_node_name }}",
        "body": "Workflow continuing"
      },
      "denied": {
        "message": "Denied: {{ approval_node_name }}",
        "body": "Workflow stopped"
      },
      "timed_out": {
        "message": "Timeout: {{ approval_node_name }}",
        "body": "Approval request expired"
      }
    }
  }
}

Testing Notifications

Test notification configuration before use:

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/notification_templates/5/test/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Test notifications:

Use sample data
Send immediately
Appear in notification history
Don’t affect job execution

Notification Hierarchy

Notifications inherit from parent objects:

Organization
  └── Project
      └── Job Template

A job will trigger notifications from:

Job Template notifications
Project notifications (inherited)
Organization notifications (inherited)

Troubleshooting

Email Issues

SMTP Authentication Fails:

Verify credentials are correct
Check if app-specific passwords required (Gmail)
Ensure SMTP server allows AWX’s IP
Test with telnet/openssl s_client

Emails Not Received:

Check spam/junk folders
Verify recipient addresses
Review mail server logs
Test with plain SMTP (no TLS) to isolate issue

Slack Issues

Messages Not Appearing:

Verify bot token has chat:write scope
Ensure bot is member of private channels
Check channel names include # prefix
Review Bot OAuth Scopes in Slack App settings

Permission Denied:

Bot needs to be added to private channels
Verify chat:write.public scope for public channels
Check workspace-level restrictions

Webhook Issues

Connection Refused:

Verify URL is accessible from AWX
Check firewall rules
Test with curl from AWX container
Verify endpoint is listening

SSL Certificate Error:

Add CA certificate to AWX trust store
Temporarily disable SSL verification for testing
Check certificate expiration and chain

Webhook Returns Error:

Review webhook service logs
Verify expected payload format
Check authentication headers
Test with request inspection tools

Debug Notifications

View Notification History:

curl https://awx.example.org/api/v2/notifications/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Check Notification Status:

curl https://awx.example.org/api/v2/notifications/123/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Review Error Details:

{
  "id": 123,
  "status": "failed",
  "error": "Connection timeout to slack.com:443",
  "notification_type": "slack",
  "recipients": "#deployments",
  "subject": "Job #456 succeeded"
}

Best Practices

Message Design

Keep messages concise and actionable
Include relevant links to AWX UI
Use appropriate verbosity per channel (brief for SMS, detailed for email)
Test message templates with various job outcomes

Channel Selection

Email: Detailed reports, compliance, archives
Slack/Mattermost: Team collaboration, quick updates
PagerDuty: Critical failures requiring immediate response
Webhooks: Integration with other systems
SMS: Urgent alerts for on-call personnel
Grafana: Correlation with metrics and monitoring

Performance

Don’t over-notify (use appropriate triggers)
Batch notifications when possible
Configure timeouts appropriately
Monitor notification delivery times

Security

Use encrypted connections (TLS/SSL)
Rotate webhook URLs and API tokens regularly
Limit sensitive data in notifications
Apply RBAC to notification templates
Review recipient lists regularly

Reliability

Test all notification templates
Set up fallback notification channels
Monitor notification success rates
Have alternative alerting for notification failures
Document escalation procedures

API Examples

Create Email Notification

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/notification_templates/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Team Email",
    "organization": 1,
    "notification_type": "email",
    "notification_configuration": {
      "host": "smtp.gmail.com",
      "port": 587,
      "username": "notifications@example.com",
      "password": "app-password",
      "use_tls": true,
      "sender": "awx@example.com",
      "recipients": ["team@example.com"],
      "timeout": 30
    }
  }'

Create Slack Notification

curl -X POST https://awx.example.org/api/v2/notification_templates/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Slack Alerts",
    "organization": 1,
    "notification_type": "slack",
    "notification_configuration": {
      "token": "xoxb-your-token",
      "channels": ["#deployments"]
    },
    "messages": {
      "success": {
        "message": "🎉 {{ job.name }} succeeded!"
      }
    }
  }'

Attach to Job Template

# For success notifications
curl -X POST \
  https://awx.example.org/api/v2/job_templates/1/notification_templates_success/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": 5}'

# For error notifications  
curl -X POST \
  https://awx.example.org/api/v2/job_templates/1/notification_templates_error/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": 5}'

​Overview

​Supported Notification Types

​Notification Workflow

​Email Notifications

​Configuration

​SMTP Settings

​Email Message Format

​Slack Notifications

​Setup

​Slack Features

​Slack Message Format

​Webhook Notifications

​Configuration

​Webhook Payload

​HTTP Methods

​Authentication Methods

​Webhook Examples

​PagerDuty Notifications

​Setup

​PagerDuty Incidents

​Mattermost Notifications

​Setup

​Rocket.Chat Notifications

​Setup

​IRC Notifications

​Configuration

​IRC Behavior

​Grafana Notifications

​Setup

​Grafana Annotations

​Twilio SMS Notifications

​Setup

​Configuration

​SMS Format

​AWS SNS Notifications

​Setup

​Configuration

​Attaching Notifications

​Job Templates

​Notification Triggers

​Organizations

​Projects

​Inventory Sources

​Custom Message Templates

​Jinja2 Templating

​Available Template Variables

​Workflow Approval Messages

​Testing Notifications

​Notification Hierarchy

​Troubleshooting

​Email Issues

​Slack Issues

​Webhook Issues

​Debug Notifications

​Best Practices

​Message Design

​Channel Selection

​Performance

​Security

​Reliability

​API Examples

​Create Email Notification

​Create Slack Notification

​Attach to Job Template

​See Also

Overview

Supported Notification Types

Notification Workflow

Email Notifications

Configuration

SMTP Settings

Email Message Format

Slack Notifications

Setup

Slack Features

Slack Message Format

Webhook Notifications

Configuration

Webhook Payload

HTTP Methods

Authentication Methods

Webhook Examples

PagerDuty Notifications

Setup

PagerDuty Incidents

Mattermost Notifications

Setup

Rocket.Chat Notifications

Setup

IRC Notifications

Configuration

IRC Behavior

Grafana Notifications

Setup

Grafana Annotations

Twilio SMS Notifications

Setup

Configuration

SMS Format

AWS SNS Notifications

Setup

Configuration

Attaching Notifications

Job Templates

Notification Triggers

Organizations

Projects

Inventory Sources

Custom Message Templates

Jinja2 Templating

Available Template Variables

Workflow Approval Messages

Testing Notifications

Notification Hierarchy

Troubleshooting

Email Issues

Slack Issues

Webhook Issues

Debug Notifications

Best Practices

Message Design

Channel Selection

Performance

Security

Reliability

API Examples

Create Email Notification

Create Slack Notification

Attach to Job Template

See Also