Alert routing — email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, webhook
Alert routing decides where a domain's alerts land. Point a client group at an email address, a Slack or Microsoft Teams channel, or a generic JSON webhook, and every alert for that group's domains is delivered there. A single domain can override its group with its own route when one client needs something different.
By default, alerts email the address on your account. Alert routing lets you send them somewhere that fits how each client's team actually works. A route is just a destination — an email address or a webhook URL — attached to a client group. Every domain in that group inherits the group's routes, so you configure delivery once per client instead of once per domain.
For webhooks you pick a provider so the payload matches the destination: Slack and Microsoft Teams format the alert as a channel message, while Generic JSON posts the raw alert body — optionally HMAC-signed with a shared secret — so you can wire it into your own tooling. Email routes send the same alert as a plain email.
Set up a Slack route
- In Slack, create an Incoming Webhook for the channel you want alerts to land in, and copy its https://hooks.slack.com/… URL.
- In Domain Watchdog, open the client group and choose Add route.
- Set the kind to Webhook and the provider to Slack, then paste the Slack webhook URL as the destination.
- Save the route, then choose Send test alert — Domain Watchdog posts a sample message to the channel.
- Confirm the test message arrived in Slack. Once it does, the route is verified and starts receiving that group's live alerts.
The Add route form showing kind, provider, and destination fields for a client group
Unverified routes never receive alerts. A new route stays inactive until you send a test alert and it succeeds — so a typo'd URL or a wrong channel is caught before a real alert would have silently gone nowhere. Check the route shows as verified after your test send.
Routes are scoped to either a client group or a single domain. A domain inherits its group's routes by default; add a route directly to one domain and that per-domain route overrides the group for that domain only — useful when one client site needs its alerts sent somewhere different from the rest of the group.
Add more than one route to a group to fan an alert out to several places at once — for example an email to the account manager and a Slack message to the on-call channel.
Frequently asked questions
Which alert destinations are supported?
Email, plus three webhook providers: Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Generic JSON. Slack and Teams format the alert as a channel message; Generic JSON posts the raw alert payload to any URL you control and can be HMAC-signed with a shared secret.
Why isn't my new route receiving alerts?
A route only goes live after it passes a test send. Open the route, choose Send test alert, and confirm it arrives at the destination — once the test succeeds the route is verified and starts receiving that group's alerts. An unverified route is skipped.
Can one domain send alerts somewhere different from its group?
Yes. A domain inherits its client group's routes by default, but you can add a route directly to that domain. A per-domain route overrides the group's routes for that domain only.
Can I verify a Generic JSON webhook came from Domain Watchdog?
Yes. Set a signing secret on a Generic JSON route and Domain Watchdog signs each payload with an HMAC using that secret, so your endpoint can verify the request is genuine before acting on it.