Tallwatch posts a structured incident card to your Slack channel using Slack’s incoming webhook integration. Setup takes about two minutes and requires only admin access to the workspace.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tallwatch.com/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Before you start
- You must have permission to install or configure apps in your Slack workspace.
- Decide which Slack channel will receive alerts. A dedicated
#incidentsor#alertschannel works better than a busy general channel.
Step 1: Create an incoming webhook in Slack
Open the Slack apps directory
Visit api.slack.com/apps and click Create New App → From scratch.
Name the app
Use something recognisable, like
Tallwatch alerts. Pick the workspace you want to receive alerts in.Enable Incoming Webhooks
In the left sidebar under Features, click Incoming Webhooks. Toggle Activate Incoming Webhooks to on.
Add the webhook to your channel
Click Add New Webhook to Workspace, pick the channel that should receive alerts, then click Allow.
Step 2: Add the channel in Tallwatch
Open the channels page
Navigate to Settings → Alerts → Channels in the dashboard and click Add channel.
Pick Slack
Select the Slack kind. Give the channel a name that describes the audience, like
Engineering #incidents.Step 3: Bind the channel to a monitor
Open any monitor’s settings tab, pick an escalation policy that includes your Slack channel, and save. The next incident on that monitor will fire to Slack. If you do not have an escalation policy yet, the channel is automatically picked up by the workspace-wide fallback (every enabled channel fires for monitors without an explicit policy).What the alert looks like
A single Slack message per incident event with:- The monitor name as a bold heading
- A coloured sidebar (red for
incident.opened, green forincident.resolved) - Failing regions listed
- A deep link back to the incident detail page in the Tallwatch dashboard
- The check duration and the consensus rule that fired
Troubleshooting
Test alert sent but nothing arrived in Slack
Test alert sent but nothing arrived in Slack
Most common cause: the channel was deleted or archived after you created the webhook, but the webhook URL is still active. Slack silently drops messages to deleted channels. Recreate the webhook against a live channel.Less common: the app was uninstalled from the workspace. Reinstall from the same Slack app page.
`invalid_payload` from Slack
`invalid_payload` from Slack
The webhook URL is malformed or has been revoked. Regenerate it in the Slack app config and paste the new URL into Tallwatch.
Some alerts arrive, others don't
Some alerts arrive, others don't
Check the channel’s dispatch history in Tallwatch. If you see
rate_limited rows, your channel is hitting the 30-second-per-channel cap and queueing. The queued messages will deliver, just spread over time. If this is a constant problem, split monitors across multiple Slack channels.Alerts arrive but missing fields are blank
Alerts arrive but missing fields are blank
The channel always sends the canonical payload — there is nothing to configure on the Slack side beyond the URL. If you want a custom shape, switch to a Webhook channel and template the body yourself.
Reference
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Channel kind | slack |
| Required config | webhook_url |
| Send rate limit | 1 per 30 s per channel (queued, not dropped) |
| Retry policy | Up to 3 attempts on 5xx, then queued for the next 30-s slot |
| Outbound to | hooks.slack.com |