Create an Alert Policy

Documentation Team · Updated May 30, 2026 23:36

An Alert Policy ties a set of failure events to one or more Notification Channels. When an event you’re watching fires, the policy creates an Alert, groups related alerts into an Issue, and delivers messages to its attached channels.

Before you start: you need at least one Notification Channel. If you haven’t created one yet, see Add a Notification Channel first.

Open Alert Policies

Click your account name in the top-right of any DropStream screen, then click Account settings.
In the Settings sidebar, expand Alert Settings and click Alert Policies.

The list shows each policy’s name, the number of monitored events it covers, how many channels are attached, and any currently open incidents.

Create a policy

Click + Add Alert Policy.

Enter a concise, descriptive Policy Name — for example, Order Import & Processing Alerts or Inventory Sync Alerts.
Choose an Alert Grouping option. This controls how multiple alerts from this policy are rolled up into issues:
- Per policy — all alerts from this policy collapse into a single open issue at a time. Use when you want the quietest possible inbox.
- Per event type — a separate issue per monitored event (for example, Import Failed issues are tracked separately from Export Failed issues).
- Per event and target — a new issue for each affected entity (store, warehouse, connection, and so on). Use when you need the finest-grained view of which integrations are failing.
Set Auto-close Duration in hours. DropStream will automatically close an issue if it stays open longer than this without a new alert. The default is 24 hours; many teams prefer a longer window (such as 720 hours / 30 days) for lower-volume integrations.
Click Create Policy.

Attach Notification Channels

After the policy is created, open it from the Alert Policies list.

In the Notification Channels card, click Manage.
Select one or more existing Notification Channels, then save.

A policy with no channels will create alerts and issues but will not deliver any messages, so make sure at least one channel is attached.

Edit policy settings later

From the policy detail page, click Edit to change the name, Alert Grouping, or Auto-close Duration.

Add events to monitor

A policy with no monitored events will never fire. In the next step, you’ll add the specific failures the policy should watch for.