Alert Configuration
Configure threshold alerts, spike detection, and notification channels
Stackwatch has two types of alerts: threshold alerts and spike detection alerts.
Threshold alerts
Fires when a metric's usage percent crosses a configured percentage (default 80%).
- Configure per-metric in Settings → Alert Thresholds
- Set the trigger percentage with the slider (10–100%)
- Anti-spam: won't re-fire until usage drops below the threshold and crosses it again
Spike detection (Pro)
Fires when a metric suddenly jumps well above its recent baseline — even if the absolute percentage is low.
- Available on the Pro plan only
- Toggle per-metric in Settings → Alert Thresholds → Spike Alerts
- Uses a statistical baseline (last ~24 readings) to detect anomalies
- Cool-down: at most one spike alert per metric per hour
How it works
Stackwatch computes the mean and standard deviation of the last 24 readings for a metric. A spike is detected when the current value is more than 2.5 standard deviations above the mean and at least 1.5× the typical baseline. This catches genuine anomalies (a sudden 5× memory spike) without false-positives from stable metrics with tiny natural variation.
The baseline window is approximately:
- Free tier: ~6 hours (15-minute polling × 24 readings)
- Pro tier: ~2 hours (5-minute polling × 24 readings)
At least 6 data points are required before spike detection activates for a metric.
Notification channels
Both alert types are delivered through the same configured channels.
| Channel | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ | ✓ | |
| Slack | — | ✓ |
| Discord | — | ✓ |
| Browser Push | — | ✓ |
Configure channels in Settings → Notifications.
Slack and Discord webhooks
- Create an incoming webhook in your Slack workspace or Discord server
- Copy the webhook URL
- In Stackwatch, go to Settings → Notifications and paste the URL into the relevant field
Browser push notifications
- In Settings → Notifications, click Enable browser push
- Approve the browser permission prompt
- Your current browser/device is registered — repeat on other devices if needed
Alert history
All fired alerts are logged in Alerts → History with the metric name, value, threshold, channel used, and timestamp. History is retained for 7 days on Free and 30 days on Pro.