heartbeat/docs/NOTIFICATIONS.md

Notification System

Overview

Notifications are dispatched to the owner and managers of a host, each via their own configured notification channels. Channel definitions are global; users reference them by name. No users configured → no notifications sent.

Architecture

Alert event (udp.py / threshold.py)
  └─ notify.send_notification(host_name, Notification)
       ├─ look up host.owner + host.managers
       ├─ for each user → user.notification_channels
       └─ for each channel → _dispatch_to_channel (filtered by min_level)

Every notification carries:

• title — [LEVEL] hostname (e.g. [CRITICAL] webserver01)
• body — detail message (metric value, threshold, duration)
• url — link to the plugin metrics page ({base_url}/plugins#{hostname})
• level — RECOVER | WARNING | CRITICAL | INFO

Configuration

Base URL

Set base_url so notification links point to your hbd instance:

base_url: https://hbd.example.com

Channel definitions

Channels are defined under notification_channels. Each entry specifies a delivery type and its credentials. Ownership is the single visibility signal:

Field	Default	Description
owner	(absent)	Owning username. Present = private to that user; absent = global.
min_level	WARNING	Minimum alert level this channel receives.

(The former private flag is retired; leftover private keys are ignored and dropped on the next edit.)

Global channels (no owner; set in the config file or by an admin) can be selected by all users but edited only by admins:

notification_channels:

  pushover_ops:
    type: pushover
    token: your-app-token
    user: your-user-key
    min_level: WARNING

  email_ops:
    type: email
    recipients: [ops@example.com]
    sender: hbd@example.com
    smtp_server: smtp.example.com
    smtp_port: 587
    smtp_user: hbd@example.com
    smtp_password: secret
    min_level: WARNING

  matrix_oncall:
    type: matrix
    homeserver: https://matrix.example.org
    access_token: syt_xxx
    room_id: "!abc:matrix.example.org"
    min_level: CRITICAL

  sms_oncall:
    type: sms_voipms
    api_user: me@example.com
    api_password: secret
    did: "5551234567"
    dst: "5559876543"
    min_level: CRITICAL

  signal_ops:
    type: signal
    cli_path: /usr/local/bin/signal-cli
    user: +12025551234
    recipient: +12025559999

  mattermost_devops:
    type: mattermost
    host: mattermost.example.com
    token: webhook-token
    channel: devops-alerts
    username: heartbeat-bot

User-created channels are written by authenticated users through the API, their profile page, or the settings page. They carry an owner field and are private to that user:

notification_channels:

  alice_personal:
    type: pushover
    token: personal-token
    user: personal-key
    owner: alice          # private to alice

Channel visibility

Channel	Who can see / select it	Who can edit it
No owner (global)	All users	Admins
owner set (private)	Only the owner	The owner
Any channel	Admins always see everything	Admins

Admins can promote a private channel to global by clearing its owner on the settings page, or demote a global channel by assigning an owner.

Users with notification channels

Each user lists which channels they receive notifications on. Users can manage their own selection from the profile page:

users:
  alice:
    full_name: Alice Smith
    password: pbkdf2:sha256:...
    admin: true
    notification_channels: [pushover_ops, email_ops]

  bob:
    full_name: Bob Jones
    password: pbkdf2:sha256:...
    notification_channels: [sms_oncall, matrix_oncall]

Host access — owner and managers

Notifications for a host go to its owner and all managers:

hosts:
  webserver01:
    owner: alice             # receives all notifications for this host
    managers: [bob]          # also receives notifications
    threshold_config: default
    watch: true              # bold in dashboard (cosmetic only)
    dyndns: false

  dbserver01:
    owner: alice
    managers: [bob]
    threshold_config: database
    dyndns: false

watch: true only affects display (bold name in the live dashboard). Notifications are now controlled entirely by owner/managers.

Channel Types

min_level filtering

Every channel accepts an optional min_level field:

Value	Channels receive
WARNING (default)	WARNING, CRITICAL, RECOVER
CRITICAL	CRITICAL only (and RECOVER)

RECOVER is always passed through — you don't want to miss a recovery.

pushover

Sends push notifications via Pushover. Includes title, body, and a clickable URL.

type: pushover
token: your-app-token     # Required: Pushover application token
user: your-user-key       # Required: Recipient's user key
min_level: WARNING

email

Sends via SMTP. Subject = title, body = message + URL on final line.

type: email
recipients: [ops@example.com, oncall@example.com]
sender: hbd@example.com
smtp_server: smtp.example.com
smtp_port: 587             # 587 = STARTTLS (default), 465 = SSL
smtp_user: hbd@example.com
smtp_password: secret
min_level: WARNING

matrix

Sends a formatted HTML message to a Matrix room via matrix-nio.

type: matrix
homeserver: https://matrix.example.org
access_token: syt_xxx      # Bot account access token
room_id: "!abc:matrix.example.org"
min_level: WARNING

Setup:

1. Create a bot Matrix account
2. Obtain its access token (Element → Settings → Help & About → Access Token)
3. Invite the bot to the target room and note the room ID

sms_voipms

Sends SMS via the voip.ms REST API. Message is truncated to 160 characters.

type: sms_voipms
api_user: me@example.com   # voip.ms account email
api_password: secret       # voip.ms API password
did: "5551234567"          # Your voip.ms DID (sending number)
dst: "5559876543"          # Destination number
min_level: CRITICAL

signal

Sends via signal-cli.

type: signal
cli_path: /usr/local/bin/signal-cli
user: +12025551234         # Your registered Signal number
recipient: +12025559999    # Recipient number
min_level: WARNING

Setup:

signal-cli -u +12025551234 register
signal-cli -u +12025551234 verify CODE

mattermost

Sends via Mattermost incoming webhook. Message is formatted as Markdown.

type: mattermost
host: mattermost.example.com
token: your-webhook-token
channel: devops-alerts
username: heartbeat-bot    # Optional: display name
icon: https://…/icon.png   # Optional: bot icon URL
min_level: WARNING

Notification events

Source	Level	Title example	Body example
Host overdue	CRITICAL	[CRITICAL] webserver01	IPv4 overdue
Host recover	RECOVER	[RECOVER] webserver01	IPv4 back after being overdue for 5:23
Host boot	INFO	[INFO] webserver01	webserver01 booted
Host shutdown	INFO	[INFO] webserver01	IPv4 shutdown
Threshold breach	WARNING/CRITICAL	[CRITICAL] webserver01	cpu_percent = 95.2 (threshold: > 90.0)
Threshold reminder	CRITICAL	[REMINDER/CRITICAL] webserver01	REMINDER (CRITICAL): … ongoing for 3600s
Connection issue	WARNING	[WARNING] webserver01	new address detected …

Reminder notifications (re-notify) are sent only for CRITICAL level alerts.

API reference

send_notification(host_name, notif) -> dict

Main entry point. Dispatches to owner + managers.

from hbd.server.notify import send_notification, Notification

send_notification(
    "webserver01",
    Notification(
        title="[CRITICAL] webserver01",
        body="cpu_percent = 95.2 (threshold: > 90.0)",
        level="CRITICAL",
        url="https://hbd.example.com/plugins#webserver01",
    ),
)

Returns {channel_name: bool} for each channel dispatched.

setup(cfg, loop=None)

Called once at startup from main.py. Pass the running asyncio event loop so Matrix sends work correctly.

Troubleshooting

No notifications sent:

• Check that users are configured (users: section in yaml)
• Check that the host has an owner or managers set
• Check that users have notification_channels listed
• Check that the channel names in user config match keys under notification_channels:
• If a user can't select a channel, check whether it has an owner other than that user

min_level filtering too aggressive:

• Default is WARNING — both WARNING and CRITICAL are sent
• Set min_level: WARNING explicitly if you were expecting warnings but set CRITICAL

Matrix sends time out:

• Verify the access token is valid and the bot is in the room
• matrix-nio must be installed: pip install matrix-nio

voip.ms SMS fails:

• Enable the API in your voip.ms account (Account → API)
• Verify the DID is SMS-capable in your voip.ms account

Signal not found:

• Specify full cli_path
• Run signal-cli -u +NUMBER receive to sync trust store

Email authentication failed:

• Use app-specific passwords for Gmail/Fastmail
• Verify port: 587 for STARTTLS, 465 for SSL

Pushover 400 errors:

• Double-check token (app) and user (user key) — they are different values