Copy page

Alerts and on-call

Slack

The Spectate Slack app connects one Slack workspace to your Spectate team. Alerts arrive in Slack with Acknowledge and Resolve buttons, and you can declare, update and resolve incidents with the /spectate command. Each incident can get its own Slack channel, which Spectate keeps in sync with the dashboard. On-call members get pages, shift reminders and cover requests as direct messages from the app.

Connect Slack

Owners, managers and admins can connect Slack.

1. In the dashboard, select Integrations.
2. Under Slack, select Add to Slack.
3. In Slack, select the workspace and allow the app.

One Slack workspace connects to one Spectate team. After you connect, choose the channels: an alert channel for alerts, and the settings for incidents.

If Integrations → Slack shows Needs reconnect, the workspace was connected before some features existed. Select Reconnect to give the app the new Slack permissions. Alert channels continue to post until you do.

Get alerts in a Slack channel

1. Select Alerting → New channel.
2. Under Integration, select Slack.
3. Enter a Name.
4. Under Slack channel, select the channel.
5. Select Create channel.
6. Add the channel to an escalation path with a Notify channel step.

The list shows public channels, and private channels that the Spectate app is a member of. To use a private channel, invite the app to it in Slack first.

Alert messages

An alert message has the colour of the severity, the resource and the reason, and a chart when there is data. It has these buttons:

Spectate updates the message in place when someone acknowledges or resolves the alert, in Slack or anywhere else. The Acknowledge button goes away, and a line such as "Acknowledged by Ada" shows who did it. When the alert resolves, Spectate also posts a reply in the message's thread, which also shows in the channel.

Who is acting in Slack

Everything you do in Slack, Spectate does as your Spectate account, with your role's permissions. Spectate links your Slack user to your Spectate account the first time you use the app. The email address of your Slack profile must be the verified email address of a member of the team.

If Spectate cannot find a match, it shows a message only to you, and nothing happens. Sign in to Spectate with the same email address as your Slack profile, or ask an admin to invite you. A member who leaves the team loses the link.

Slash commands

/spectate has two aliases: /inc and /incident. In an incident channel, the commands act on that incident. In other channels, Spectate first asks you to pick an open incident.

In an incident channel, rename, summary, sev and lead with a value change the incident at once. Without a value, or in another channel, they open a form.

You can also use the Declare incident shortcut. On a message, the shortcut makes the message the incident summary, with a link back to the message.

Incident channels

When Create a channel for each incident is on, every new incident gets its own Slack channel. This includes incidents declared in Slack, in the dashboard, with the API, and by an escalation path. In the Slack declare form, you can clear Create a channel for this incident for one incident.

The channel name is the prefix, the incident number and the title, for example inc-42-checkout-errors. Spectate pins a header message in the channel. The header shows the reference, title, severity, status and commander, with these buttons:

• Post update
• Status page
• Roles
• Acknowledge, until someone acknowledges the incident
• Resolve
• View in Spectate

Spectate posts updates, status and severity changes, role changes and status page updates into the channel, from Slack and from the dashboard. If an incident has no channel, select Create Slack channel on the incident page.

Pin messages to the timeline

To add a message from the incident channel to the timeline, react to it with an emoji. Use the pushpin (:pushpin:), round pushpin (:round_pushpin:) or bookmark (:bookmark:). Spectate adds the text, the author and a link to the message. The timeline shows that you pinned it. Spectate adds each message once, and only for members who can update the incident.

Nudges

If an open incident gets no update for 30 minutes, Spectate posts a reminder in its channel. The reminder has Post update and Status page buttons. When someone posts an update or resolves the incident, Spectate removes the reminder. Change the time, or turn nudges off, with Nudge quiet incidents in the settings.

Status pages from Slack

In an incident channel, /spectate status-page publishes the incident to a status page. In other channels, it asks what to publish:

• New status page incident starts a public incident without a Spectate incident. Enter a title, a status, the impact on each component and the public message.
• An open status page incident: post its next update, or resolve it.
• An open Spectate incident: publish it, the same as in its channel.

/spectate status-page new [title] opens the form for a new status page incident at once. Both forms can backdate the update with Happened at. Notify subscribers by email is on by default. Only owners, managers and admins can publish, and Spectate only offers status pages that you can publish to. See status page incidents.

On-call in Slack

For on-call, Spectate sends direct messages from the app. You find them under the Spectate app in Slack. Spectate finds your Slack account by the verified email address of your Spectate account.

Pages

An escalation path can page you as the person on call. Spectate then also sends the alert as a direct message, with Acknowledge, Declare incident and Resolve. The message updates when someone acknowledges or resolves the alert. Slack pages do not use credits. To turn them off, clear Also page me in Slack under Your on-call.

Cover requests

When you cannot do a shift, ask the others on the schedule to cover it.

1. Enter /spectate cover.
2. Under Shift, select one of your shifts of the next 4 weeks.
3. Optional: enter From and Until to ask for part of the shift.
4. Optional: enter a Note.
5. Select Ask.

Spectate asks every other member of the schedule's rotations. Each one gets a direct message with Accept and Can't cover. The first person to accept gets an override for the whole window, and Spectate updates all the messages. You get the answers in a thread under your own message, which has Send reminder and Cancel request. Members that Spectate cannot find in Slack get an email instead. See cover requests for the full rules.

Shift messages and handovers

Before each of your shifts, Spectate sends a reminder with Request cover and View schedule. It also sends a message when your shift starts and when it ends. Choose the time of the reminder, or turn the messages off, with Shift messages in Slack under Your on-call. The default is Also 1 hour before.

A schedule can also announce each handover in a channel. The message mentions who is on call now, until when, and who they take over from. If there is no handoff in the next 90 days, the messages say so. Select the channel under Slack → Handover channel on the schedule page.

On-call user groups

Spectate can create a Slack user group for a schedule and keep it up to date. Mention the group to reach the right people.

1. Open the schedule on the On-call page.
2. Under Slack, select Keep an on-call user group.
3. Enter the Handle. Spectate proposes the schedule name with -oncall, for example platform-oncall.
4. Under Keep it set to, select Whoever is on call or Everyone on the schedule.
5. Select Save.

Spectate creates the group in Slack. If a group with this handle exists, Spectate uses that group. If you change the handle later, Spectate renames the group. If you clear Keep an on-call user group, Spectate disables the group in Slack.

Spectate updates the group at each handover and when the rotations change. Slack does not allow an empty group. When nobody is on call, Spectate disables the group, and enables it again at the next handover. Members that Spectate cannot find in Slack are not added.

The Spectate tab

Open the Spectate app in Slack and select Home. The tab shows:

• Declare incident, Request cover and Open Spectate.
• Your on-call: your shifts of the next 2 weeks, each with Request cover.
• Cover requests: requests that you can answer, and your own open requests.
• Open incidents: up to 10, with Post update.

The tab updates after you use one of its buttons.

Settings

Find the settings under Integrations → Slack. Owners, managers and admins can change them.

Disconnect Slack

1. Select Integrations.
2. Under Slack, select Disconnect.
3. Select Disconnect to confirm.

Spectate disables the alert channels that post through the workspace. If you connect Slack again, they turn on again. Existing incident channels stay in Slack, but Spectate stops posting to them. If someone removes the app in Slack, Spectate disables the alert channels and sends an email, the same as for a disabled channel.

Related

• Incidents: declare and resolve incidents.
• Updates and roles: what Spectate mirrors into the incident channel.
• Alerts: acknowledge and resolve alerts.
• On-call: schedules, overrides and cover requests.