Creating Incidents via Web Interface

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Overview

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Create a New Incident in the Web App

1

Open the New Incident Form

You can initiate a new incident from several locations:

• Dashboard → Create Incident (top-right)
• Incidents → Create Incident (top-right)

Global Action Menu → Create Incident (bottom-left)This opens the full New Incident form.

2

Fill in the Incident Details

The New Incident form captures all core information needed to begin coordinated response and trigger automation.Most fields are customizable under Configuration → Forms.Default fields include:

Field	Description
Title	Name of the incident; also used to generate the Slack channel name.
Summary	Short description of what’s happening.
Severity	Defaults from SEV3 → SEV0.
Type	Defaults: Cloud, Security, Customer-Facing, Default.
Mark as Private	Restricts visibility to permitted users.

Additional Notes

• Required fields are marked with a *
• Leaving Title blank activates the Automatic Incident Title Generator
• Only owners, admins, or privileged users can create/view private incidents
• Private incidents are recommended for security-, privacy-, or customer-sensitive issues

If your team uses Mark as In Triage, selecting this checkbox starts the incident in Triage instead of Started. See the Incident Lifecycle page for details on how these statuses differ.

3

Review Required Fields (If Applicable)

Your workspace may enforce:

• Required fields on incident creation
• Required fields for specific lifecycle transitions
• Required fields based on severity, incident type, or team

If you miss a required field, the Web UI will block submission and highlight the missing values.

Completing required metadata during creation prevents blockers later when moving the incident from Started → Mitigated → Resolved.

4

(Optional) Add Additional Context

Depending on how your team configures the form, you may see optional sections such as:

• Services
• Functionalities
• Environments
• Groups
• Incident Types
• Labels
• Notify Emails
• Custom form fields
• Test Incident checkbox (if enabled)

Adding contextual metadata improves:

• Automated routing
• Workflow execution
• Analytics and dashboards
• Retrospective quality

5

Create the Incident

Click Create Incident.Upon creation, Rootly will automatically:

• Create the incident record
• Capture lifecycle timestamps (e.g., started_at)
• Trigger your incident-creation workflows
• Create a Slack incident channel (if enabled)
• Assign default responders or roles
• Add initial timeline entries
• Redirect you to the newly created incident page

Most teams automate channel creation, role assignment, and stakeholder notifications to reduce manual overhead and speed up initial response.Customize the New Incident form in the Web app

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After the Incident Is Created

• Update lifecycle status (Triage → Started → Mitigated → Resolved → Closed)
• Assign roles and add responders
• Add timeline entries
• Attach or review alerts
• Trigger or monitor workflows
• Publish stakeholder updates
• Track action items and tasks
• Join the Slack channel associated with the incident

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Customizing the New Incident Form

1

Open Form Configuration

Navigate to:Configuration → Forms → New Incident → ConfigureThen select the Web tab.You can optionally copy the structure from the Slack form using:Copy fields from Slack form

• Left panel: current form structure
• Right panel: real-time preview

2

Edit and Manage Fields

You can customize:

• Field order
• Field visibility
• Required fields
• Custom field types (dropdowns, multi-selects, relations, etc.)

Use:

• Drag handle (six dots) → reorder fields
• Pencil icon → edit a field
• Minus icon → remove a field
• Add Fields → add new fields

Changes save automatically.

We recommend keeping Slack and Web forms aligned so responders have a consistent experience regardless of where incidents are created.

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Troubleshooting

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Best Practices

• Use structured fields (Severity, Services, Environments) for clarity & analytics
• Keep required fields minimal but meaningful
• Use Private mode for security or privacy-sensitive incidents
• Align Slack and Web forms for consistency
• Automate repetitive creation steps with workflows
• Provide descriptive titles and actionable summaries