The incident lifecycle
Create the incident
Navigate to Manage → Incidents and click New Incident. Provide a title and start date/time. The incident is created with state
INVESTIGATING and status OPEN.Add an initial update
Optionally write an initial update message when creating the incident. This becomes the first entry in the timeline. Update text supports Markdown formatting.
Link affected monitors
Attach one or more monitors to the incident and set the impact level for each (
DOWN or DEGRADED). This overrides the monitor’s displayed status on the public page for the duration of the incident.Post timeline updates
As your investigation progresses, add updates to the incident timeline. Each update carries a state (
INVESTIGATING, IDENTIFIED, MONITORING, or RESOLVED) and a timestamp. The incident’s top-level state advances to match the latest update.Creating an incident
Go to Manage → Incidents → New Incident.Required fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | A short, clear description of the incident. Required. |
| Start date/time | When the incident began. Entered in your local timezone and stored as UTC. Required. |
Optional fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Initial update | The first timeline entry. Supports Markdown. |
| Affected monitors | Monitors impacted by this incident, with their impact level. |
| Global incident | Toggle whether the incident is visible on all status pages (YES) or scoped (NO). Defaults to YES. |
Adding timeline updates
Timeline entries (called updates in the UI, stored asincident_comments) are how you communicate progress to users.
To add an update to an existing incident:
- Open the incident from Manage → Incidents
- Click Add Update in the Updates section
- Write your message in the Markdown editor
- Select the current state (
INVESTIGATING,IDENTIFIED,MONITORING, orRESOLVED) - Set the date/time for this update (defaults to now)
- Click Add Update
comment— the Markdown message bodystate— the incident state at the time of this updatecommented_at— the Unix timestamp of the updatestatus— whether the update isACTIVE(visible) or archived
Editing an existing update or posting a new one with state
RESOLVED will automatically set the incident’s end_date_time to that update’s timestamp. Changing a resolved incident back to any other state clears the end_date_time.Linking monitors to an incident
You can attach monitors to an incident to indicate which services are affected and how. To add a monitor:- In the incident detail page, click Add Monitor
- Select a monitor from the list of available monitors
- Choose the impact level:
DOWNorDEGRADED - Click Add Monitor
The monitor impact level (
DOWN, DEGRADED, or MAINTENANCE) overrides what is displayed for that monitor on the public status page for the duration of the open incident.Incident states reference
| State | When to use |
|---|---|
INVESTIGATING | Initial state. The problem has been detected but root cause is unknown. |
IDENTIFIED | You know what caused the incident and are working on a fix. |
MONITORING | A fix is deployed. You are watching systems to confirm stability. |
RESOLVED | The incident is over. Systems are back to normal. |
Editing an incident
To edit an existing incident’s core details:- Open the incident from Manage → Incidents
- Modify the title, start date/time, or global visibility toggle
- Click Save Changes
For existing incidents, the state is controlled by timeline updates, not the incident form directly. To change the state, post a new update with the target state.
Deleting an incident
From the incident detail page, click Delete. You must type the confirmation phrasedelete incident {id} before the deletion is accepted.
Deleting an incident permanently removes:
- The incident record
- All timeline updates (comments)
- All monitor associations
- Any alert links to the incident (the alert records themselves are preserved but their
incident_idreference is cleared)
Filtering and pagination
The incidents list at Manage → Incidents shows open incidents by default. Use the state filter dropdown to narrow the list:| Filter option | Shows |
|---|---|
| All States | All incidents regardless of state |
| Investigating | Incidents in INVESTIGATING state |
| Identified | Incidents in IDENTIFIED state |
| Monitoring | Incidents in MONITORING state |
| Resolved | Incidents in RESOLVED state |