Email Notifications
Email remains the most reliable notification channel. APIAssert delivers detailed alert emails when your monitors fail, recover, or detect anomalies.
Why Email?
- Universal — everyone has email
- Reliable — no app installation required
- Searchable — find past incidents easily
- Mobile — get push notifications from your email app
What You'll Get
- Detailed failure reports with full request/response data
- Recovery notifications when issues resolve
- Daily/weekly digests (optional) summarizing monitor health
- Multiple recipients — send to individuals or team aliases
Setup Guide
Step 1: Add an Email Channel
- Go to Alerts → Channels in your APIAssert dashboard
- Click Add Channel → Email
- Enter recipient email address(es)
Step 2: Configure Recipients
You can add multiple recipients:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Use + tags to filter in Gmail/Outlook.
Step 3: Set Preferences
Choose what triggers email notifications:
- ✅ Failures — when monitors detect issues
- ✅ Recoveries — when monitors return to healthy
- ⬜ Warnings — slow responses, approaching thresholds
Step 4: Assign to Monitors
Edit your monitors and add the email channel under Alert Channels.
Email Format
APIAssert sends clean, scannable emails:
Subject: 🔴 Monitor Failed: Production API
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MONITOR FAILURE DETECTED
Monitor: Production API
URL: https://api.example.com/health
Status: 500 Internal Server Error
Response Time: 2,340ms
Region: US East
Time: Dec 11, 2024 at 2:34 PM UTC
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WHAT FAILED
Assertion: $.status == "success"
Expected: "success"
Received: "error"
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[View Monitor] [Acknowledge Alert]
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Configuration Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Recipients | Comma-separated email addresses |
| Alert on Failure | Send email when monitor fails |
| Alert on Recovery | Send email when monitor recovers |
| Include Response Body | Attach response data (truncated) |
| Include Headers | Show response headers in email |
Best Practices
Use Team Aliases
Send to group aliases instead of individuals:
- ✅ [email protected]
- ✅ [email protected]
- ❌ [email protected] (single point of failure)
Set Up Email Filters
Create inbox rules to organize alerts:
Gmail:
From: [email protected]
Label: API-Alerts
Skip Inbox: (optional)
Outlook:
From: [email protected]
Move to: Monitoring/Alerts
Use +Tags for Routing
Many email providers support + tags:
[email protected] → Production alerts
[email protected] → Staging alerts
[email protected] → Critical only
Don't Rely on Email Alone
Email can be delayed or filtered. For critical production systems, combine email with real-time channels:
- Email + Slack for team visibility
- Email + PagerDuty for on-call escalation
Troubleshooting
Not receiving emails?
- Check spam/junk folders
- Verify the email address is correct
- Add
[email protected]to your contacts - Check if your email provider is blocking bulk mail
Too many emails?
- Increase monitor check intervals
- Enable alert cooldowns to prevent duplicate notifications
- Use Slack/Discord for real-time, email for daily digests
Emails delayed?
- Email delivery isn't instant — expect 1-2 minute delays
- For faster alerts, use Slack, Discord, or webhooks
Next Steps
- Set up Slack for instant team alerts
- Configure PagerDuty for on-call escalation
- Learn about alerting best practices
