Core Concepts2 min read

Urgency and Severity Mapping

Urgency and Severity Mapping

OpsKnight normalizes alerts into a standard Severity and Urgency model so notifications are consistent across providers.

Severity (Event Level)

Severity Meaning Maps to Urgency
Critical System down or unusable HIGH
Error Significant degradation MEDIUM
Warning Minor issue or approaching limits LOW
Info Informational / recovery / normal ops LOW

Urgency (Notification Level)

Urgency Behavior
HIGH Pages on-call immediately (SMS, Push, Phone)
MEDIUM Standard notification (Slack, Email)
LOW Logged for visibility, optional low-priority notification

Provider Mappings

AWS CloudWatch

State Severity Urgency
ALARM Critical HIGH
OK Info LOW
INSUFFICIENT_DATA Warning LOW

Azure Monitor

Azure Severity Severity Urgency
Sev0 Critical HIGH
Sev1 Error MEDIUM
Sev2 Warning LOW
Sev3+ Info LOW

Datadog

Status Severity Urgency
error Critical HIGH
warning Warning LOW
info Info LOW

Prometheus / Alertmanager

Label (severity) Severity Urgency
critical / page Critical HIGH
error Error MEDIUM
warning Warning LOW
other Warning LOW

Sentry

Level Severity Urgency
fatal Critical HIGH
error Error MEDIUM
warning Warning LOW
info Info LOW

Uptime Tools

Status Severity Urgency
down / open Critical HIGH
up / resolved Info LOW

Custom Webhooks

You can set severity directly in your payload:

{
  "summary": "Database High CPU",
  "severity": "critical",
  "source": "custom-script"
}

Notes

  • Mapping logic lives in integration adapters and event processing.
  • Use consistent severity values for predictable escalation.

Last updated for v1

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