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Escalation Policies ​

Escalation policies define what happens when an on-call person doesn't respond to an alert in time.

What is an Escalation Policy? ​

An escalation policy is a sequence of steps that Rotadeck works through when an alert goes unacknowledged. Each step targets a user, team, or rotation, and has a timeout — if no one acknowledges within that time, the next step is triggered.

For example:

  • Step 1: Notify the primary on-call engineer — wait 5 minutes
  • Step 2: Notify the backend on-call rotation — wait 10 minutes
  • Step 3: Notify the engineering manager rotation

Creating an Escalation Policy ​

  1. Navigate to Escalation Policies from the sidebar
  2. Click Add Escalation Policy
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Name: Descriptive name (e.g., "Production Critical")
    • Description: Optional details about when this policy applies
    • Repeat Count: How many times to cycle through all steps before stopping (0 = no repeat, max 10)
  4. Add one or more steps:
    • Target Type: Who to notify — a specific user, or a rotation (all on-call members)
    • Target: Select the user or rotation
    • Timeout: Minutes to wait before moving to the next step (minimum 1)
  5. Click Save

Steps ​

Each step in a policy defines:

  • Who gets notified — a user, team, or rotation
  • How long to wait — if not acknowledged within the timeout, the next step fires

Steps execute in order. Once the last step is reached and the timeout expires, the policy either repeats (if repeat count > 0) or stops escalating.

Target Types ​

  • User — notifies a specific individual directly
  • Rotation — notifies whoever is currently on-call in that rotation

Attaching to a Rotation ​

Escalation policies are attached at the rotation level:

  1. Open the rotation details
  2. Select an Escalation Policy from the dropdown
  3. Click Save

When an alert arrives and reaches that rotation's on-call user, the policy activates if the alert is not acknowledged in time.

Best Practices ​

  • Start narrow, escalate wide: Begin with the on-call individual before notifying the whole team
  • Keep timeouts realistic: Give people enough time to respond — 5–15 minutes is typical for the first step
  • Use repeat sparingly: Repeating a policy more than once can cause alert fatigue

Deleting an Escalation Policy ​

  1. Open the escalation policy list
  2. Select the policy
  3. Click Delete in the action bar at the bottom
  4. Confirm

Warning: Rotations using this policy will have their escalation policy cleared. Unacknowledged alerts will no longer escalate.