vantage-docs/docs/vantage/notification-channels.md

id, title, sidebar_label

id	title	sidebar_label
notification-channels	Notification channels	Notification channels

A channel is a destination for alerts. One channel serves as many monitors as you like.

Manage them at Settings → Notifications.

Types

Webhook

Posts JSON to a URL you choose.

Setting
url	Required

{
    "monitor": "API front door",
    "type": "http",
    "old_status": "up",
    "new_status": "down",
    "message": "HTTP 502",
    "time": "2026-07-28T09:14:02Z"
}

Alerts from a metric alert add "server_name" with the server that breached. Other monitor types leave it out.

Any response of 300 or above counts as a delivery failure. The request times out after 10 seconds.

Discord

Setting
url	Discord webhook URL

Posts the alert as message content.

Slack

Setting
url	Slack incoming webhook URL

Telegram

Setting
token	Bot token
chat_id	Target chat

SMTP

Setting
host, port	Required
from, to	Required
username, password	Optional; auth is skipped when the username is empty

Port 465 uses implicit TLS; anything else uses STARTTLS.

Credentials are never read back

The SMTP password, the Telegram token and the webhook, Slack and Discord urls come back from GET /api/channels as •••••••• - a webhook URL is the authorisation to post to that channel, so it is treated as a credential like the rest. Writing that value back unchanged keeps the stored one, which is what lets you rename a channel without retyping its password. Anything else you send is written as given, so clearing the field clears the credential.

Alert emails look like the rest of the mail Vantage sends you.

The message

Non-webhook channels all send the same one-line title:

[Vantage] API front door (http) is DOWN: HTTP 502

Recoveries read recovered in place of is DOWN. The webhook payload carries the same information as fields, which is the one to use if you are routing into something that needs to branch on status.

Testing

Every channel has a Test button. It dispatches a fabricated down event for a monitor called "Test monitor" and sends it the same way a real alert goes out, so a test that arrives proves the credentials, the network path and the destination as well as the form.

:::tip Test after every change Channel settings are only exercised when something breaks, which is the worst time to discover a stale webhook URL. Re-test after rotating a token. :::

Choosing destinations

• Use a chat channel for awareness, and make sure someone owns it.
• Use SMTP where a durable record matters.
• Use a webhook to reach an on-call system that does escalation properly. Vantage does not do escalation, rotas or acknowledgement; a webhook into something that does is the intended answer.