Channels

A channel is a reusable “where to send an alert” destination. You create channels once and attach them to as many monitors as you like (see Alerting overview). All channels live under Alerts in the top navigation, on the Channels tab.

Adding a channel

1. Go to Alerts in the top navigation and stay on the Channels tab.
2. In the Add a channel panel, give the channel a Name (anything that helps you recognize it, e.g. “Ops team email”).
3. Pick a Type. The form then shows only the fields that type needs.
4. Fill in the fields (see the per-type sections below) and select Add channel.

New channels are enabled by default and appear in the Your channels list on the left.

Test before you trust

After adding a channel, select Send test next to it in the list. Aloft fires a synthetic down alert through that channel so you can confirm the wiring — a valid webhook URL, a real Slack token, the right mailbox — before you’re depending on it during an actual outage. The test shows up in the delivery log just like a real alert.

Enabling and disabling a channel

Every channel in the Your channels list shows an Enabled or Disabled badge. A disabled channel stays attached to its monitors but is skipped when alerts fan out — useful for muting a noisy destination without unhooking it everywhere. Use the Delete button to remove a channel entirely.

Channel types

Email

Sends an HTML email when a monitor goes down and again when it recovers.

Field	What to enter
Send to	The destination email address (e.g. [email protected]).

Webhook

POSTs a JSON payload to a URL you control — use this to integrate with anything that isn’t a built-in channel.

Field	What to enter
Webhook URL	The endpoint Aloft should POST to.
HTTP method	POST (default), PUT, or PATCH.
Signing secret (optional)	A shared secret (min. 8 chars). When set, Aloft signs each request so your receiver can verify it’s genuine.

The payload shape, signing scheme, and verification examples are documented separately in Webhooks and signing.

Slack

Posts a formatted message to a Slack channel via an incoming webhook.

Field	What to enter
Slack incoming-webhook URL	A URL like https://hooks.slack.com/services/….

To get one: in Slack, create (or open) an app, enable Incoming Webhooks, add a webhook to the channel you want alerts in, and copy the generated URL.

Discord

Posts an embed to a Discord channel via a channel webhook.

Field	What to enter
Discord incoming-webhook URL	A URL like https://discord.com/api/webhooks/….

To get one: in Discord, open Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks, create a webhook on the target channel, and copy its URL.

Microsoft Teams

Posts a card to a Teams channel via an incoming webhook.

Field	What to enter
Teams incoming-webhook URL	A URL like https://outlook.office.com/webhook/….

To get one: in Teams, open the channel’s ⋯ → Connectors (or Workflows), add an Incoming Webhook, name it, and copy the URL.

PagerDuty

Triggers a PagerDuty incident when a monitor goes down and resolves it on recovery, using the Events API v2.

Field	What to enter
Integration / Routing Key	The Events API v2 routing key (min. 8 chars).

To get one: on the target PagerDuty service, add an integration of type Events API v2, then copy its Integration Key (also called the routing key).

OpsGenie

Creates an OpsGenie alert when a monitor goes down and closes it on recovery, using the OpsGenie Alerts API.

Field	What to enter
API key	An OpsGenie API integration key (min. 8 chars).
EU region account	Toggle on if your OpsGenie account is hosted in the EU region; leave off for US.

To get the key: in OpsGenie, add an API integration (or use an existing one) and copy its API key. Turn on the EU region account switch only if your OpsGenie account lives on the EU instance.

SMS (Twilio)

Sends a text message via your own Twilio account.

Field	What to enter
Twilio Account SID	Your Twilio Account SID (starts with AC…).
Twilio Auth Token	The matching Auth Token for that account.
From (E.164)	A Twilio number you own, in E.164 format (e.g. +15555550100).
To (E.164)	The recipient number, in E.164 format (e.g. +15555550199).

You’ll find the Account SID and Auth Token on your Twilio Console dashboard. The From number must be a phone number purchased in (or verified by) your Twilio account.

Where to go next

• Alerting overview — how to attach these channels to a monitor.
• Webhooks and signing — the generic webhook channel in depth.
• Delivery log and replay — confirm a test went out and re-send it.