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Incident Roles help your team respond faster by automatically assigning responsibilities when a team is attached to an incident. By configuring Incident Roles in advance, you can make sure the right people are assigned to the right responsibilities without needing to coordinate everything manually during an incident.

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Before You Begin

Make sure you have:
  • Access to Configuration → Incident Roles
  • A team with members already created
  • On-call schedules, teams, or escalation policies configured (optional)
  • Permission to create or manage Workflows (required for paging automation)

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How It Works

Assignments occur when a team is attached to an incident, either:
  • During incident creation
  • When a team is added later
When assignment runs, Rootly:
  • Applies the Incident Role mappings configured for that team
  • Assigns users to the appropriate Incident Roles
  • Creates any Default Tasks attached to those roles
  • Adds matched on-call users to the incident channel
For on-call assignments, Rootly uses the user who is actively on-call at the time the team is attached to the incident.

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Create an Incident Role

To create a new Incident Role:
  1. Navigate to Configuration → Incident Roles
  2. Click Create Role
  3. Fill in the role details:
    • Name (required)
    • Description (optional)
    • Responsibilities (optional) — A message shown to the user when they are assigned the role
    • Optional role — Allows the role to remain unassigned during an incident
    • Allow multiple users — Allows more than one user to be assigned to the role
  4. Click Create Role
Create Incident Role form

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Add Default Tasks

After creating the role, you can add Default Tasks to automatically assign follow-up work when that Incident Role is assigned during an incident. To add Default Tasks:
  1. Open the Incident Role you created
  2. Edit the role
  3. Add one or more Default Tasks for this role
  4. Save your changes
When the role is assigned during an incident, those tasks are automatically created for the assigned user. Changes to role mappings and Default Tasks generally apply to future assignments, not incidents that are already in progress.
Default Tasks section in Incident Role editor
Configured default tasks for an Incident Role

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Assign Roles to Team Members

Once the Incident Role is created, assign it to members of the appropriate team.
  1. Navigate to Teams
  2. Open the team you want to update
  3. Select the Members tab
  4. Add or edit team members and choose their Incident Role
  5. Save your changes
Team Members tab with incident role assignments
Assign Incident Role to a team member

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Auto-Assign Roles from On-Call

You can also assign Incident Roles based on who is currently on-call for a:
  • Schedule
  • Team
  • Escalation policy
If a matching user is actively on-call and configured for the role, they are automatically:
  • Assigned to the role
  • Added to the incident channel
Role assignment and paging are separate behaviors. Users can be auto-assigned through Incident Role configuration, but paging requires a Workflow action.

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Verify Your Setup

Create a test incident and attach the configured team. Then confirm that:
  • The expected Incident Roles are assigned
  • Default Tasks are created
  • On-call users are assigned when applicable
  • Any related Workflows run as expected

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Troubleshooting

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No Incident Role assignee appears

Confirm that the configured team was attached to the incident and that team members are mapped to the correct Incident Role. If the role should be assigned from on-call, verify that the on-call source is configured for that role.

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No on-call user is assigned

Verify the correct schedule, team, or escalation policy is configured and that someone is actively on-call at the time the team is attached. If coverage recently changed, check timezone or shift handoff timing.

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No Workflow actions run

Confirm that the Workflow is enabled and that its conditions match the incident. Role assignment alone does not notify or page users unless a Workflow action is configured.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Incident Roles are assigned when a team is attached to an incident, either during incident creation or when a team is added later.During assignment, Rootly:
  • Applies the Incident Role mappings configured for that team
  • Assigns the appropriate users to each role
  • Creates any Default Tasks attached to the assigned roles
  • Adds matched on-call users to the incident channel
This helps your team start response work faster with ownership and next steps already in place.
These settings control how flexible an Incident Role assignment can be during an incident:
  • Optional role means the role can remain unassigned if no one needs to fill it immediately
  • Allow multiple users means more than one user can hold the same Incident Role at the same time
These options are useful when a responsibility is either not always required or is often shared across multiple responders.
Default Tasks are created automatically when the related Incident Role is assigned during an incident.They are useful for standardizing recurring work, such as:
  • Posting updates
  • Reviewing logs
  • Coordinating communications
  • Following predefined response steps
Changes to Default Tasks generally apply to future assignments. Tasks that already exist on an incident usually remain unchanged unless someone updates them manually.
If an Incident Role is configured to use an on-call source, Rootly assigns the user who is actively on-call at the time the team is attached to the incident.Supported sources can include:
  • A schedule
  • A team on-call setup
  • An escalation policy
When a matching on-call user is found, they are assigned to the role and added to the incident channel.
Not always. Role assignment and paging are separate actions.
  • Role assignment gives the user responsibility within the incident
  • Paging and notifications depend on a configured Workflow
If you want assigned users to be alerted automatically, make sure the Workflow conditions and actions are configured for that behavior.
This usually happens because of a configuration issue or because no matching user was available at the time of assignment.Common reasons include:
  • The team was not attached to the incident
  • The Incident Role mapping is not configured correctly
  • No eligible team member matched the role
  • No active on-call user matched the configured source
  • The wrong schedule, team, or escalation policy is connected
The fastest way to validate your setup is to create a test incident and attach the configured team.
Yes. A single user can hold multiple Incident Roles if your configuration supports it.This is especially useful for:
  • Smaller teams
  • Lightweight incidents
  • Situations where one responder needs to cover multiple responsibilities