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Overview

Incident Catchup helps responders quickly understand the current state of an incident when joining an incident Slack channel midstream. Using Rootly AI, responders can request an up-to-date summary that explains what has happened so far, what is currently known, and how the incident is being handled—without needing to read the full channel history. Incident Catchup is available in Slack only and is designed specifically for real-time collaboration during an active incident. When a responder runs the catchup command in an incident channel, Rootly generates a concise, AI-powered summary based on the incident’s current context and delivers it as a private, ephemeral message visible only to the requester.

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Via Slack

In an incident Slack channel, run one of the following commands:
  • /rootly catchup
  • /rootly catch up
  • /rootly catch-up
  • /rootly summarize
All variations trigger the same behavior.
Incident catchup command in Slack
The summary is sent as an ephemeral message, meaning it is only visible to you and does not post publicly in the channel. You can run the command multiple times as the incident evolves to receive updated summaries.
Incident catchup private summary

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What’s Included in a Catchup Summary

Incident Catchup uses the same AI summarization technology as standard incident summaries, with an expanded output. The catchup summary includes:
  • A single-paragraph narrative describing the incident problem, impact, trigger or cause, and resolution or mitigation steps (when available)
  • People involved in the incident and their roles (when documented)
  • An automatically appended attributes list, which may include:
    • Meeting or bridge links
    • Severity
    • Affected environments and services
    • Selected custom form field values
This ensures responders receive both a narrative overview and key structured details in one view.

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How It Works

The /rootly catchup command uses the same AI service as Incident Summarization and analyzes the incident’s complete current context, which may include:
  • Incident metadata and attributes
  • Timeline events
  • Associated alerts
  • Action items and follow-ups
  • Slack channel messages (when permitted by privacy settings)
  • Meeting transcripts, if available
The summary is generated at the time the command is run and reflects the most current state of the incident. Because the message is ephemeral, it does not clutter the incident channel and remains private to the requesting user.

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Permissions

To use Incident Catchup, you must meet both of the following conditions:
  • Have permission to generate summaries on the incident
  • And either:
    • Have permission to update the incident, or
    • Be an Observer on the incident and have the enable_rootly_catchup_for_observers feature flag enabled for your team
If you do not meet these requirements, the command will return an error.

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Configuration

Incident Catchup is available to all customers but requires Incident Summarization to be enabled. To enable this feature:
  1. Navigate to Rootly AI
  2. Toggle on Enable Rootly AI
  3. Ensure Incident summarization is enabled
Only Admins can manage Rootly AI configuration. To ensure the best results, configure Slack channel message visibility to one of the following:
  • All messages
  • All messages in Public + pinned in Private
These settings allow Rootly AI to access sufficient Slack context when generating summaries and can be updated at any time from Rootly AI configuration.
Rootly AI incident catchup configuration
Incident Catchup in private incidents depends on your Slack channel message visibility settings. For private incidents, AI features are available only when your channel history scope includes private messages.

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Troubleshooting

Ensure that Rootly AI is enabled and Incident summarization is turned on. Verify that you have permission to generate summaries and that you meet the incident permission requirements. For private incidents, confirm that Slack channel message visibility settings allow AI access.
Incident Catchup summaries are sent as ephemeral messages and are only visible to you. Check for a private message in the channel rather than a public post.
The summary can only include information that exists at the time it is generated. Add or update timeline events, alerts, action items, or incident details, then run the command again to receive an updated summary.