Notifications

Upptime supports multiple notification channels to alert you when your monitored sites experience downtime. Configure notifications to ensure your team is immediately informed of any incidents.

Available Notification Channels

Upptime integrates with popular communication platforms through GitHub Actions:

Slack

Post incident updates to Slack channels

Discord

Send alerts to Discord servers and channels

Receive messages in Telegram groups or channels

Email

Send email notifications to team members

Microsoft Teams

Post to Teams channels

Custom Webhooks

Integrate with any service that accepts webhooks

Configuration

Notifications are configured in your .upptimerc.yml file:

.upptimerc.yml

owner: upptime
repo: upptime

sites:
  - name: Google
    url: https://www.google.com
  - name: Wikipedia  
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org

# Notification configuration
notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
  - type: discord
    webhook-url: $DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL

Always use GitHub Secrets to store webhook URLs and API tokens. Never commit sensitive credentials to your repository.

Setting Up Notifications

Slack

Integrate Upptime with Slack to receive incident notifications:

Step 1: Create Slack Webhook

Go to your Slack workspace’s Apps page
Search for “Incoming Webhooks” and add it
Choose the channel for notifications
Copy the webhook URL

Step 2: Add Secret to GitHub

Go to your repository Settings
Navigate to Secrets and variables > Actions
Click New repository secret
Name: SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
Value: Paste your webhook URL
Click Add secret

Step 3: Configure .upptimerc.yml

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    channel: "#status-alerts"

Step 4: Test Notification

Trigger a test by manually running the Uptime workflow:

Go to Actions tab
Select Uptime CI
Click Run workflow

Discord

Send notifications to Discord servers:

Setup
Configuration
Customization

Open your Discord server settings
Go to Integrations > Webhooks
Click New Webhook
Name it “Upptime” and select a channel
Copy the webhook URL
Add as DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL secret in GitHub

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: discord
    webhook-url: $DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL
    username: "Upptime Bot"
    avatar-url: "https://upptime.js.org/img/icon.svg"

Customize the appearance:

notifications:
  - type: discord
    webhook-url: $DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL
    username: "Status Monitor"
    embed-color: "#dc3545"  # Red for incidents

Receive alerts in Telegram:

Create Bot

Message @BotFather on Telegram
Send /newbot and follow instructions
Copy the bot token
Add as TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN secret in GitHub

Get Chat ID

Add your bot to a group or channel
Send a message to the bot
Visit https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates
Find the chat.id in the response
Add as TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID secret in GitHub

Configure

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: telegram
    bot-token: $TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
    chat-id: $TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID

Email

Send email notifications using SMTP:

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: email
    smtp-host: smtp.gmail.com
    smtp-port: 587
    smtp-username: $SMTP_USERNAME
    smtp-password: $SMTP_PASSWORD
    from: "[email protected]"
    to:
      - "[email protected]"
      - "[email protected]"

For Gmail, you’ll need to create an App Password instead of using your regular password.

Microsoft Teams

Post to Microsoft Teams channels:

Create Webhook

Open Microsoft Teams
Go to the channel for notifications
Click … > Connectors
Find Incoming Webhook and configure
Copy the webhook URL
Add as TEAMS_WEBHOOK_URL secret

Configure

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: teams
    webhook-url: $TEAMS_WEBHOOK_URL

Custom Webhooks

Integrate with any service that accepts webhooks:

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: webhook
    url: https://your-service.com/webhook
    method: POST
    headers:
      Authorization: "Bearer $API_TOKEN"
      Content-Type: "application/json"
    body: |
      {
        "site": "$SITE_NAME",
        "status": "$SITE_STATUS",
        "url": "$SITE_URL",
        "timestamp": "$TIMESTAMP"
      }

Notification Events

You can configure which events trigger notifications:

Downtime Detected

When a site goes down:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    on:
      - down

Site Recovered

When a site comes back up:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    on:
      - up

Degraded Performance

When response times are slow:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    on:
      - degraded

All Events

Notify on all status changes:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    on:
      - down
      - up
      - degraded

Per-Site Notifications

Configure different notifications for different sites:

.upptimerc.yml

sites:
  - name: Production API
    url: https://api.example.com
    notifications:
      - type: slack
        webhook-url: $SLACK_CRITICAL_WEBHOOK
      - type: pagerduty
        integration-key: $PAGERDUTY_KEY
        
  - name: Staging Site
    url: https://staging.example.com
    notifications:
      - type: slack
        webhook-url: $SLACK_DEV_WEBHOOK

Notification Content

Customize the content of notifications:

Message Template
Custom Fields
Rich Formatting

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    message-template: |
      🚨 Alert: $SITE_NAME is $STATUS
      URL: $SITE_URL
      Response: $RESPONSE_CODE
      Time: $TIMESTAMP

Available variables:

$SITE_NAME - Name of the site
$SITE_URL - URL being monitored
$STATUS - Current status (up/down)
$RESPONSE_CODE - HTTP response code
$RESPONSE_TIME - Response time in ms
$TIMESTAMP - Current timestamp

For Slack/Discord, use rich formatting:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    blocks:
      - type: section
        text:
          type: mrkdwn
          text: "*$SITE_NAME* is *$STATUS*"
      - type: context
        elements:
          - type: mrkdwn
            text: "Response: $RESPONSE_CODE | Time: $RESPONSE_TIMEms"

Managing GitHub Secrets

Navigate to Settings

Go to your repository and click Settings

Access Secrets

In the sidebar, go to Secrets and variables > Actions

Add New Secret

Click New repository secret

Enter Details

Name: Use uppercase with underscores (e.g., SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL)
Value: Paste your webhook URL or API token

Reference in Config

Use the secret in .upptimerc.yml with $SECRET_NAME syntax

Secrets are encrypted and cannot be viewed after creation. Make sure to save a backup copy securely.

Testing Notifications

Test your notification setup:

Manual workflow trigger: Run the Uptime CI workflow manually
Test site: Add a site you know is down (e.g., https://thissitedoesnotexist.koj.co)
Wait for check: The next scheduled check will trigger a notification
Verify delivery: Check your notification channel

.upptimerc.yml

sites:
  # Test site that will always be down
  - name: Test Broken Site
    url: https://thissitedoesnotexist.koj.co

Rate Limiting

To avoid notification spam:

Minimum Interval

Set a minimum time between notifications:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    min-interval: 3600  # Only notify once per hour

Notification Grouping

Group multiple site failures into one notification:

notifications:
  - type: slack
    webhook-url: $SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
    group-notifications: true
    group-interval: 300  # Group notifications within 5 minutes

Troubleshooting

Not Receiving Notifications

Verify the secret is correctly named in GitHub
Check the workflow logs in the Actions tab
Test the webhook URL manually with curl
Ensure the notification channel/bot is properly configured

Webhook URL Invalid

Double-check you copied the entire URL
Ensure no extra spaces or characters
Regenerate the webhook if needed
Verify the webhook hasn’t been revoked

Rate Limited

Check your notification platform’s rate limits
Reduce notification frequency
Use notification grouping
Consider multiple webhooks for high-volume alerts

Best Practices

Use Separate Channels

Create dedicated channels for status notifications to reduce noise

Set Priorities

Use different notification methods for critical vs. non-critical sites

Test Regularly

Periodically test notifications to ensure they’re working

Document Setup

Keep documentation of webhook URLs and configuration

Advanced Integration

PagerDuty Integration

For on-call escalation:

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: pagerduty
    integration-key: $PAGERDUTY_INTEGRATION_KEY
    severity: critical
    component: "Web Services"

Datadog Integration

Send metrics to Datadog:

.upptimerc.yml

notifications:
  - type: datadog
    api-key: $DATADOG_API_KEY
    site: datadoghq.com
    tags:
      - "service:upptime"
      - "env:production"

Custom GitHub Actions

Create your own notification logic:

.github/workflows/custom-notify.yml

name: Custom Notifications
on:
  issues:
    types: [opened, closed]
jobs:
  notify:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Send custom notification
        run: |
          # Your custom notification logic here
          curl -X POST ${{ secrets.CUSTOM_WEBHOOK }} \
            -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
            -d '{"incident": "${{ github.event.issue.title }}"}'

Get Started

Core Features

Configuration

Guides

Advanced

Available Notification Channels

Slack

Discord

Telegram

Email

Microsoft Teams

Custom Webhooks

Configuration

Setting Up Notifications

Slack

Discord

Telegram

Email

Microsoft Teams

Custom Webhooks

Notification Events

Per-Site Notifications

Notification Content

Managing GitHub Secrets

Testing Notifications

Rate Limiting

Troubleshooting

Best Practices

Use Separate Channels

Set Priorities

Test Regularly

Document Setup

Advanced Integration

PagerDuty Integration

Datadog Integration

Custom GitHub Actions

Next Steps

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Features

Configuration

Guides

Advanced

​Available Notification Channels

Slack

Discord

Telegram

Email

Microsoft Teams

Custom Webhooks

​Configuration

​Setting Up Notifications

​Slack

​Discord

​Telegram

​Email

​Microsoft Teams

​Custom Webhooks

​Notification Events

​Per-Site Notifications

​Notification Content

​Managing GitHub Secrets

​Testing Notifications

​Rate Limiting

​Troubleshooting

​Best Practices

Use Separate Channels

Set Priorities

Test Regularly

Document Setup

​Advanced Integration

​PagerDuty Integration

​Datadog Integration

​Custom GitHub Actions

​Next Steps

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Available Notification Channels

Configuration

Setting Up Notifications

Slack

Discord

Telegram

Email

Microsoft Teams

Custom Webhooks

Notification Events

Per-Site Notifications

Notification Content

Managing GitHub Secrets

Testing Notifications

Rate Limiting

Troubleshooting

Best Practices

Advanced Integration

PagerDuty Integration

Datadog Integration

Custom GitHub Actions

Next Steps