Create a Trigger

Triggers send alerts when your data in Honeycomb crosses the thresholds that you configure. To learn more about guidelines for using Triggers to alert, visit Guidelines for SLOs and Trigger Alerts.

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Creating Triggers

You can create a trigger within the Triggers page or while using the Query Builder. You can create a trigger for a specific dataset or across all datasets in your environment (an environment-wide trigger). Environment-wide triggers are useful when you need to alert on conditions that span across multiple services or datasets within your environment.

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Configuring Triggers

To configure the trigger, define the trigger details, trigger alert threshold, and notification preferences in the Define New Trigger page that appears.

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Define New Trigger

Enter identifying information for your Trigger:

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Trigger Query

After defining your Trigger information, the next Query Run section displays your Trigger Query. A Trigger Query scopes the conditions for your Trigger threshold. If you created a new Trigger from Query Builder, your Trigger Query automatically populates and the sample graph appears automatically. If you created a new Trigger from the Triggers page, you must enter a Trigger Query before the sample graph appears. Create a Trigger Query using VISUALIZE, WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses. Use the Run in Query Builder icon () to the right of the available clauses to open your Trigger Query in Query Builder in a new tab. For inspiration on trigger queries, visit our Trigger Examples.

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HAVING clause

Use a HAVING clause to filter aggregated results in your Trigger Query. This will allow you to define composite alert conditions, and will only notify when all of those unique conditions are met. This is particularly useful when using GROUP BY on high-cardinality attributes where numerous distinct groups can be generated. Unlike filters that affect the main graph data, HAVING use does not impact the primary visualization in the Trigger Query preview. Instead, a second graph appears that reflects the HAVING filter’s criteria, as seen in the HAVING example below.

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Sample Graph

After entering your trigger query, a sample graph appears, which displays how the trigger query and the trigger alert components interact. The sample graph displays the trends for your query with the most recent 16 periods as indicated by markers. By default, the sample graph’s duration and frequency are both 15 minutes. Navigate to Duration and Frequency in the Alerts section to modify these values and your sample graph will adjust accordingly.

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Trigger Query Example

In the example below, the sample graph for a 30 minute frequency with a 120 minute duration shows the previous 1920 minutes (or 32 hours).

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Trigger Query Example with HAVING

In the example below, the top graph shows the results of the Trigger Query and the bottom graph shows the results of applying HAVING COUNT_DISTINCT(app.user.id) > 5 to the Trigger Query.

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Alerts

Next, define the conditions for the trigger alert notification.

1. Trigger Alert Type
2. Threshold
3. Frequency of Alerts
4. Duration
5. Frequency

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Trigger Alert Type

Configure the type of calculation needed to notify. Select the named tab to choose between:

• Static Threshold - Use to notify when the condition crosses the specific value of your configured static threshold.
• Dynamic Baseline - Use to notify when a delta, or difference in value, is detected compared to a baseline value in the past. Use cases include Performance Monitoring, such as operational KPIs (traffic volume, error rates) shifts, and Customer Behavior Monitoring, such as drops in activity or spikes in churn.

Your selection determines the display in the Threshold section.

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Threshold

Threshold indicates what trigger condition generates a notification. Enter your notification conditions, depending on your Trigger Alert Type.

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Frequency of Alerts

Configure how frequently alerts occur for your trigger. Use the toggle to choose between:

• Limited alerts (default) - Receive two alerts: a triggered alert when the threshold is met or exceeds, and a resolved alert when the threshold is unmet.
• Continuous alerts - Receive an alert every time the threshold is met and the trigger runs. For example, if the Trigger’s frequency is set to 5 minutes, you will receive an alert every 5 minutes. No resolution alert is sent.

Use Continuous alerts:

• To receive alerts when Triggers continue to meet or exceed the threshold
• When the triggered event is more important than receiving a resolved event

For example, if a trigger has specified fields in its GROUP BY clause, and “Continuous Alerts” is selected, then the trigger will notify all recipients when any new group crosses the trigger threshold, or if any group still exceeds the threshold. If one or more groups resolve, no resolved alert will be sent.

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Duration

Duration determines what time range of data that the trigger will check. The default Duration value is 15 minutes.

Event Latency Graph

Use the Event History Latency chart to help determine a duration that captures all your events, even if delayed. To expand the chart display, select the downward arrow icon (). This graph describes the maximum and average amount of delay between the timestamp on the event and when it reached Honeycomb. For example, if the average event latency is 2 minutes, and you want to run your trigger every 5 min, then choose a 7 minute duration to ensure that delayed events are captured by the trigger. Please note that if your traces span a long time frame, you may see high latency in this chart, even though the traces are arriving as soon as they complete.

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Frequency

Frequency determines how often, in minutes, to evaluate for the Threshold, or trigger, condition. The default Frequency value is 15 minutes. Consider what is normal within your frequency window so notifications only capture conditions worth alerting.

Custom Scheduling Option

Use Custom Scheduling to specify a scheduled window in which the trigger will run. For example, you only need alerts during business hours from Monday through Friday. To enable Custom Scheduling:

1. Toggle the Custom scheduling toggle to [on].
2. Specify the time range and days of the week that the trigger should run.

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Recipients

The trigger will notify all listed recipients when the measured value crosses the configured threshold. No limitation exists for the number of recipients. By default, Honeycomb will send an alert to recipients once, when the trigger crosses the configured threshold or the Triggered state, and then send a resolved alert once the trigger is back in an OK state. To add a new recipient, select Add Recipient. Use Go to Integration Center to configure additional trigger recipient integration options, like Slack, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, and Webhooks. After selecting Add Recipient, a form will appear with Recipient options in a dropdown list. By default, you can select Notify by Email and enter email recipients. Additional integration options, like Slack, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, and Webhooks, can be selected once configured.

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Activate Trigger

Finally, select Create Trigger to save your trigger configuration. Once saved, the trigger is immediately active and will run at the next frequency interval, such as on the next 5 minute interval for a 5 minute frequency. You can enable or disable a trigger by editing the trigger and selecting the Enabled toggle.

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Start from a Template

You can create a Trigger from a template. Trigger Templates are visible in the right sidebar when creating a new Trigger. Selecting a template populates the Name, Description, and Query in the Trigger form. Trigger Templates reference fields that are set in your Dataset Definitions. If you select a template that references a field mapping that does not exist in your data, a warning message displays above the Trigger Query section that lists the missing Dataset Definition(s), as seen in the example below. To resolve the issue and fully use the Trigger Template, add the missing field and/or update your Dataset Definitions to include the missing Dataset Definition(s).

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Available Trigger Templates