You set up alerts by describing them to the Cinode Chat Agent in Slack or Microsoft Teams. This article explains how to create an alert, choose between a digest and a live ping, preview it, change it, and pause or delete it. It also covers the limits and what happens when an alert cannot be delivered. For the list of alert types, see Chat Agent: Alert types.
Create an alert
To create an alert, write what you want to be told about, and when. The Chat Agent picks the matching alert type, fills in sensible defaults, creates the alert and confirms what it set up.
Open a direct message with the Chat Agent, or go to the channel where the alerts should appear and mention the Chat Agent there.
Describe the alert, for example "Every Monday at 08:00, tell me who becomes available in the next 30 days."
If the Chat Agent needs one more detail, answer its question. It asks only for something that has no sensible default, such as which time window a digest should cover.
Read the confirmation. It states the alert type, the schedule in plain words, who the alert covers and where it will be posted.
Examples you can copy:
"Post today's birthdays in this channel every morning."
"DM me every Friday with my team's certifications that expire in the next 90 days."
"Ping this channel the moment a project moves to Won."
"Tell me live when a new role is created for my teams."
After you create an alert, the Chat Agent may mention other ways to tailor it, such as which details show on the card or a filter by team, office, pipeline or customer. These are the settings listed per alert in Chat Agent: Alert types.
Where an alert is posted
An alert is posted in the conversation where you created it. In a direct message it arrives in that direct message. If you create it in a channel or in a thread, it is posted to that channel, not as a reply in the thread.
You cannot create an alert for a different channel from where you are. To get an alert in another channel, add the Chat Agent to that channel, mention it there, and ask again.
Who an alert covers
Each alert covers one audience: you, your teams, your customers or the whole company. If you do not say, the Chat Agent picks the narrowest scope that fits your request. You can only choose a scope your Cinode permissions allow:
Me: any Cinode user, for the alert types that offer it.
Team: a team manager for the teams they manage. A company manager can choose any team, or all teams.
Customers: a customer manager for the customers they manage. A company manager can choose any customer, or all customers.
Company: every alert type except Release notes needs a company manager, which means the Company manager access level or higher. Release notes are open to any user.
The scope for a team is re-checked every time the alert is delivered. If a new sub-team is added to a team you named, the alert picks it up automatically on the next run, as long as your permissions cover it.
Choose a digest or a live alert
Alerts are delivered in one of two ways. Some types offer both, and the Chat Agent chooses by how you word the request.
Digest. Posted on a schedule, for example every Monday at 08:00. This is the default when both are offered. A digest is posted only when something matches.
Live. Posted as soon as the change happens in Cinode, with no schedule. Use wording like "ping me the moment", "as it happens" or "let me know when". For new roles and for absences, the Chat Agent waits about 2 minutes first, so repeated edits to the same record become one message.
Some alert types are live only, such as New roles created, and some are digest only, such as Expiring roles. If you ask for a live ping on a digest-only alert, the Chat Agent sets up a digest and tells you it is a periodic check, not an instant ping.
Schedules
You can ask for any of these schedules. The Chat Agent always describes the schedule in plain words and never shows a technical expression.
Daily at a time you choose, in 24-hour format.
Weekly on a day and time you choose.
Monthly on a day of the month from 1 to 31. For months that are shorter, the last day of the month is used.
Every N minutes, at least every 5 minutes.
A custom pattern, such as weekdays only or several days of the month. It runs at least 5 minutes apart. The Chat Agent uses one alert for this and does not create several.
If you do not give a time, the Chat Agent uses the nearest whole hour. Schedules are checked every 5 minutes. If the system was unavailable at the scheduled time, that run is skipped and the alert waits for the next one.
Timezone
Times use your own timezone. If you have not set one, the Chat Agent uses the timezone on your Cinode user, and then Europe/Stockholm. To change it, say for example "Set my timezone to Europe/London". Date windows such as "today" are calculated in that timezone.
Preview an alert
You can see exactly how an alert will look before you rely on it. Ask "Show me a preview of that alert." The Chat Agent runs a real preview that changes nothing. A digest preview uses your live data, or tells you that nothing would be posted right now. A live alert preview shows the real card with example data. The Chat Agent never writes a sample by hand, because a hand-written sample could promise text that the alert cannot send.
Review, change, pause and delete alerts
Ask the Chat Agent to manage your alerts. You can say, for example:
List: "What am I subscribed to?" It lists every alert with the alert type, schedule, status and a short ID of 8 characters. If someone else set up an alert that posts in your channel, it names them.
Change: "Move the birthday alert to 09:00" or "Make the expiring roles alert look 30 days ahead." Changes keep the alert and its history. You can change the schedule, the settings and who it covers.
Pause and resume: "Pause the weekly digest" and "Resume it."
Delete: "Delete the daily 09:00 digest." If your description matches more than one alert, the Chat Agent shows the matches and asks which one. It never deletes on an unclear match.
In Slack you can also use the slash command. Type /cinode list to see your alerts and their short IDs, then /cinode pause, /cinode resume or /cinode delete followed by the ID. These work on your own alerts only and reply privately. /cinode settings opens your language and timezone settings. The Slack Home tab shows your alerts with pause and delete buttons. Microsoft Teams has no slash command, so manage alerts by chatting with the Chat Agent.
Who can change someone else's alert
Only the person who created an alert can pause, resume, delete or change what it reports. Cinode administrators, with access level Admin or higher, can also manage other people's alerts. Any other member of the channel can only change the schedule of someone else's scheduled alert, and the owner is told when that happens. A live alert has no schedule, so others cannot change it.
Limits and duplicates
These limits apply to alerts:
15 alerts per person. Paused alerts count. When you reach the limit, the Chat Agent lists your alerts and asks which one to remove or pause. Contact Cinode Support if your company needs a different limit. A limit of 0 means unlimited.
No duplicates. The Chat Agent refuses to create an alert if an alert of the same type already posts the same events, to the same audience and on the same schedule, in the same channel. Your own paused alert counts, so resume it instead. A colleague's paused alert does not block you. Differences in layout alone, such as card details, intro text or mentions, do not make it a different alert. Two alerts of the same type with different filters can exist side by side.
Quiet when empty. A digest with nothing to report is not posted.
When an alert cannot be delivered
The Chat Agent tells you in the conversation when an alert is in trouble. Which situation applies depends on the cause:
Cinode cannot be reached, or the creator lost the access the alert needs. Delivery is held and retried on the next 5-minute check, then after 15 minutes, 60 minutes and up to 6 hours. After about 15 minutes a one-time notice says your alerts are on hold. If the problem lasts 48 hours, the alert is paused, with the reason in the notice. If Cinode or the access returns before then, delivery resumes silently.
The alert itself fails. Retries follow the same timing. After the 4th failure in a row, a notice says the alert is degraded. After 10 failures in a row, the alert is stopped and marked failed, and you get a notice.
The creator left the channel. When the chat platform confirms the creator is no longer in the conversation, the alert is deleted. If the platform cannot confirm it, nothing is deleted.
An alert type was retired. The alert is deleted and the owner is notified once.
If alerts do not arrive at all, see Chat: Troubleshooting.