Notifications
Each workspace can tell its team about incidents in a Slack channel, by email, or both. An owner sets it up in Settings, Notifications; other members see the settings read-only.
What you hear about
| Event | Sent when |
|---|---|
| Incident opened | The watcher or a person opens a new incident. A signal that joins an open incident does not send another. |
| Approval needed | Medic has a fix waiting for an approval. |
| Incident resolved | The fix worked and the signals are healthy again. |
| Incident failed | No fix worked, none was approved, or the investigation was stopped. |
Each of the four can be turned off. Deploy plans waiting for approval are not notified yet; they show in the Approvals inbox and on the Overview page.
Slack
Create an incoming webhook
In Slack, add the Incoming Webhooks app to your workspace, or create a Slack app with incoming webhooks turned on. Pick the channel the messages should go to.
Copy the webhook URL
It looks like
https://hooks.slack.com/services/….Paste it in Groundcrew
In Settings, Notifications, paste the URL and save.
The webhook URL is stored encrypted and never shown again; the page only says Saved. To change the channel, paste a new URL. To stop Slack messages, remove the saved webhook.
Choose who gets email, then Save notifications:
- Owners only (the default).
- Every member of the workspace.
- No email.
Only confirmed addresses get mail. An address is confirmed when the person signed in with an email link, or with GitHub using an address GitHub verified.
Send a test
Send test posts a sample message to every channel that is set up and shows what each one answered, so you can see a wrong webhook or a bounced address straight away.
What a message contains
- The incident title and severity.
- The affected resources.
- A one-line summary, which becomes the root cause once Medic knows it.
- A link to the incident page.
- For an approval: each fix and its plan, as before and after lines.
Messages never contain secret values or tokens.
Why there is no approve link
Messages never carry approve or reject links. Mail security scanners and chat link previews open every link they see, and an approval must be a deliberate decision by a signed-in person. Approving always happens in Groundcrew, on the incident's approval card or in the Approvals inbox, where you see the full plan.
A message is a pointer, not a permission. If someone forwards it, the link still requires them to sign in and to be an owner or approver of the workspace.
Other email from Groundcrew
Apart from notifications, Groundcrew sends:
- Sign-in links, when you ask for one. A link works once and expires after 15 minutes.
- Invitations, when an owner adds you to a workspace by email address.
Troubleshooting
- Slack test fails with 404 or "no_service". The webhook was removed or the app uninstalled in Slack. Create a new webhook and paste it.
- Slack test fails with "channel_not_found" or "action_prohibited". The channel was archived or the webhook is restricted. Create a webhook for another channel.
- Nobody gets email. Check the audience is not No email, and that members have confirmed addresses. Look in spam folders the first time.
- A message arrived late. Messages are sent in the background with up to 5 attempts, so a slow Slack or mail server never holds up an investigation. A message can arrive a little after the incident page changed.
Who can change these settings is on Members and roles.