Alert Routing

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Overview

Alert Routing ensures that alerts from your monitoring and observability systems reach the correct responders quickly and reliably. Rootly provides a unified routing layer that works across all alert sources, enabling consistent on-call workflows. Rootly supports two routing pathways:

1. Routing inside your monitoring tool (Datadog, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, etc.)
2. Routing inside Rootly using centralized Alert Routes

This guide focuses on routing inside Rootly.

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What Is an Alert Route?

An Alert Route defines when, how, and to whom Rootly should send alerts. It supports evaluation against:

• Alert Sources
• Alert Fields (normalized metadata)
• Raw payload values (JSONPath)
• Teams, services, and escalation policies

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Creating an Alert Route

Navigate to Alerts → Routes and click New Route. Each route requires:

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Name

A descriptive title that clarifies the route’s purpose.

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Alert Sources

Select one or more alert sources the route should evaluate.
Sources can be added or removed at any time. See all integrations → Integrations Overview

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Owning Team

Controls who can edit the route. After creating a route, you can begin adding Routing Rules.

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Configuring Routing Rules

Routing Rules determine which alerts should page responders and where they should go. Click Add routing rule to create one.

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Routing Rule Conditions

Conditions define when a rule should trigger.

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Select a Field

You may reference:

• Alert Fields (recommended)
• Payload values via JSONPath

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Choose an Operator

Supported operators include:

• is one of
• contains
• starts with
• matches regex
• is empty
• and more

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Add Additional Conditions

Use AND/OR groups to define complex routing logic.

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Live Preview

Rootly shows matching historical alerts to validate your logic.

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Routing Rule Destinations

Each rule must specify who receives the alert. You may route alerts to:

• Teams
• Services
• Escalation Policies

Routing to a team or service automatically triggers its configured escalation policy. Rules may include multiple destinations, all of which will be paged when the rule fires.

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Completing the Alert Route

A route may contain any number of rules.
Rootly evaluates rules top-to-bottom, so ordering matters. Use the rule menu (… → Reorder rule) to adjust order.

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How Rootly Routes Alerts

Rootly evaluates alerts in two sequential stages.

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Stage 1 — Payload-Based Routing

If the alert payload contains a target ID (team or service), Rootly immediately routes the alert there without evaluating Alert Routes.

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Stage 2 — Evaluate Alert Routes

If the alert does not specify a target:

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Evaluate Routes

Rootly evaluates every Alert Route associated with the alert’s source.

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Evaluate Rules

Within each route, rules are evaluated from top to bottom.

• The first matching rule triggers paging
• Rootly stops evaluating additional rules in that route
• Other routes referencing the same source will still run

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Alert Timeline

Every routed alert includes a timeline event documenting:

• Which Alert Route was applied
• Which Routing Rule matched
• Which destinations were paged

This ensures responders understand why they were paged.

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Best Practices

• Prefer Alert Fields over JSONPath for stability.
• Start with broad routing categories and refine with specific rules.
• Keep rule names action-oriented and descriptive.
• Regularly check Non-Paging Alerts for routing gaps.
• Route to teams/services, not escalation policies, for better ownership.
• Combine routes thoughtfully when different teams own different tools.

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Troubleshooting