# Alerts & Issues

Cronitor's alert system ensures you're promptly notified when issues occur with your monitors. Alerts are what users sign up for - to be notified when their cron jobs, websites, services, or APIs fail.

When a monitor detects an issue, Cronitor automatically opens an **Issue** and sends **Alerts** to the recipients specified in your **Notification Lists**. Here's how these components work together. Coding agents can manage notification lists and investigate issues through the [Cronitor MCP server](https://cronitor.io/docs/mcp-server.md); the [agent quick start](https://cronitor.io/docs/agent-quickstart.md) has the recipes.

## Alerts

Alerts are the notifications Cronitor sends when a monitor fails or an [assertion](https://cronitor.io/docs/monitors-api.md#assertions) is violated. Recovery alerts are also sent when a monitor returns to a "healthy" state. All alerts contain:

- **Issue context** - Direct link to the open issue with full details
- **Monitor information** - Which specific monitor failed and error details
- **Failure description** - What went wrong and when it happened
- **Recovery status** - Whether the issue is ongoing or resolved
- **Action links** - Quick access to pause alerts, view history, or manage the monitor

![Example alert notification showing monitor failure details](https://cdn.cronitor.io/static/img/docs/alerts-notification-example.png)

## Issues

Issues are Cronitor's incident management hub - they help your team coordinate response when monitors fail - issues automatically open when monitors fail and close when they recover, creating a complete incident timeline your team can reference and learn from. Each issue provides:

- **Team coordination** - See who's been notified and track investigation progress
- **Alert visibility** - View which team members received notifications and when
- **Shared context** - Centralized place for error details, monitor history, and resolution notes
- **Status page publishing** - One-click sharing to keep customers informed during outages
- **Persistent tracking** - Issues remain accessible for post-incident review and documentation
- **Severity management** - Categorize impact level and assign ownership to team members

![Issues list showing various monitor failures and their current status](https://cdn.cronitor.io/static/img/docs/alerts-issues-list.png)

## Notification Lists

Notification Lists are reusable collections of alert recipients that you can apply to multiple monitors. They support:

- **Email addresses** - Send detailed alerts to any email
- **SMS numbers** - Text message alerts for urgent issues
- **Alert integrations** - Slack, PagerDuty, Teams, Discord, and more

All accounts have a **default** notification list. When an account is created, this list initially contains the signup user's email address. If a monitor's `notify` field is omitted or empty, Cronitor uses this list. The list can be edited later, so inspect it when the exact recipients matter.

- **Create new lists** for different teams or alert types
- **View recipient counts** and which monitors use each list
- **Edit or remove lists** with easy-to-use controls
- **See usage statistics** showing how many monitors are attached

![Notification Lists management interface showing different alert groups](https://cdn.cronitor.io/static/img/docs/alerts-notification-lists.png)

## Integrations

Detailed setup instructions for popular integrations:

| Service | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| [Slack](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-slack-with-cronitor.md) | Send alerts to channels or direct messages with rich formatting and action buttons |
| [Microsoft Teams](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-microsoft-teams-with-cronitor.md) | Deliver alerts to Teams channels with embedded monitor details and quick actions |
| [Discord](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-discord-with-cronitor.md) | Post formatted alerts to Discord servers with customizable webhooks |
| [Google Chat](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-gchat-with-cronitor.md) | Send alerts to Google Workspace Chat spaces using webhooks |
| [Telegram](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-telegram-with-cronitor.md) | Receive alerts via Telegram bot in direct messages or group chats |
| [Lark](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-larksuite-with-cronitor.md) | Deliver alerts to LarkSuite channels using custom bot integrations |
| [PagerDuty](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-pagerduty-with-cronitor.md) | Create incidents with automatic escalation, on-call routing, and resolution tracking |
| [Datadog On-Call](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-datadog-on-call-with-cronitor.md) | Route Cronitor alerts to a Datadog On-Call team for escalation and incident response |
| [OpsGenie](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-opsgenie-with-cronitor.md) | Trigger OpsGenie alerts with intelligent routing and escalation policies |
| [Splunk On-Call](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-splunk-with-cronitor.md) | Route alerts through Splunk On-Call with timeline integration and team coordination |
| [Webhooks](https://cronitor.io/docs/using-webhooks.md) | Send custom HTTP requests to any endpoint with flexible payload formatting |

## Configuring Alerts

### 1. Create integrations

Navigate to [Settings > Integrations](https://cronitor.io/app/settings/integrations) to connect your preferred services.

Once configured, these integrations can be added to any [Notification List](#notification-lists) for reuse across multiple monitors.

Popular integration types include:

- **Chat platforms** like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord
- **Incident management** tools like PagerDuty, OpsGenie, and Splunk
- **Communication services** like Telegram and email
- **Custom webhooks** for your own systems

### 2. Create Notification Lists

Go to [Settings > Alerts](https://cronitor.io/app/settings/alerts) to manage your notification lists:

1. Click **Create Notification List**
2. Add a name and unique key
3. Select recipients: emails, phone numbers, and integrations
4. Choose which environments the list should be active in

![Notification list creation interface](https://cdn.cronitor.io/static/img/docs/alerts-notification-setup.png)

### 3. Attach Lists to Monitors

When creating or editing a monitor, specify which notification lists should receive alerts. You can:

- Select existing notification lists
- Add individual email addresses or phone numbers
- Use different lists for different types of alerts

![Monitor alert configuration interface](https://cdn.cronitor.io/static/img/docs/alerts-monitor-setup.png)

## Sending Test Alerts

To verify your alert setup is working correctly, create a test heartbeat monitor and use its telemetry URL to trigger alerts:

### 1. Create a Test Monitor

[Create a new heartbeat monitor](https://cronitor.io/app/monitors/new/heartbeat) and configure it with the [notification list](#notification-lists) you want to test.

### 2. Send a Normal Ping

Copy the telemetry URL from your new monitor and paste it into your browser. Hit enter to send a normal "healthy" ping. This initializes the monitor and confirms it's working.

### 3. Trigger a Failure Alert

Add `?state=fail` to the end of the telemetry URL and hit enter. For example:
```
https://cronitor.io/p/API_KEY/test-alert?state=fail
```

This simulates a monitor failure and triggers an alert to all recipients in your notification lists. Wait for the alert to arrive via your configured channels.

### 4. Send a Recovery Alert

Remove the `?state=fail` parameter from the URL and hit enter again. This sends a recovery ping, which will trigger a recovery alert letting your team know the "issue" has been resolved.

## API Resources

Manage alerts programmatically using our APIs:

- **[Issues API](https://cronitor.io/docs/issues-api.md)** - Create, update, and retrieve issues
- **[Notification Lists API](https://cronitor.io/docs/notifications-api.md)** - Manage notification lists
- **[Monitor API](https://cronitor.io/docs/monitors-api.md)** - Configure alert preferences for monitors