> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.citino.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Alerts

> Five rules that watch your project and record a finding when something moves by more than chance, with an opt-in daily email and Slack.

Alerts answers: did anything happen that I should know about? Five rules watch your project. When something crosses its band, the rule writes a **finding**: one line stating the cause, with a link to the screen that proves it.

> What the rules found, newest first. A change small enough to be chance never raises an alert.

## The toolbar

* A line saying what the screen is: findings, not triggers.
* **Mute all for 24h** holds back every rule’s email and Slack for a day.
* **New rule** is shown and not available: there are exactly five rules, and custom rules are deliberately not part of Alerts.

The scope line counts the rules, how many are muted, and how many people get the daily email (or that nobody does, and everything lands in the feed). It also says how thresholds work: Visibility drop and Sentiment shift default to the metric’s own band, so neither fires on a move inside noise, and a number you type is a floor under the band, not an override. New competitor and New source take a whole number. Claim change has no threshold to edit.

## Rules

> The changes we watch for on your behalf. When one happens, it appears under Recent alerts.

| Rule | Fires when |
| - | - |
| Visibility drop | Your visibility, across the engines you track, falls by more than its threshold over the window. If an engine changed how it answers during the window, your drop is measured net of the median change of the competitors you track, so a drop they shared raises nothing, and the finding says the engine changed. |
| New competitor | A brand other than yours enters the top five of the league (by default) and is ahead of the previous window's fifth brand by at least the wider of their two bands. |
| Sentiment shift | Sentiment shifts by more than its threshold, in either direction, and only with enough scored answers behind it. |
| New source | A domain is cited in at least three answers in this window and in none in the 30 days before it. An event, not a change, so it carries no band. |
| Claim change | A tracked claim changes on an engine: it now states it differently from what it last said. Claims carry no band. |

> [!NOTE]
>
> No band is computed for sentiment yet, so **Sentiment shift** cannot fire. It starts the day one is published, with no change needed on your side.

**Visibility drop** shows its **effective threshold**. The rules have these controls:

* **Edit threshold**, on every rule except Claim change, which has no threshold:
  * Visibility drop and Sentiment shift: keep **its own band**, or set a floor in points. A floor never lowers the band: the rule fires on whichever is wider.
  * New competitor: how high in the league a brand must reach, as a number of places.
  * New source: how many answers must cite the domain.
* **Mute for a day**, **Mute for a week**, **Unmute**. A mute holds back the email and Slack, never the record: findings are still written and still in the feed. A mute applies to everyone.
* **Turn off** or **Turn on** the rule.
* **In the email** and, once Slack is connected, **in Slack**: whether this rule’s findings go to each channel.

## Recent alerts

The feed, newest first. Each finding names its rule, states what happened in one line, says whether it was sent by email or Slack or only recorded here, and links to the screen that proves it, with the same window, source or claim in the link: **View in Overview**, **View in Brands**, **View the source** or **View the claim**. **Show older alerts** goes back further.

If nothing crossed its band, the feed says so: the rules are running and have nothing to report. That is an answer, not an empty page.

## Channels

> Where alerts are sent besides this page. Every alert is recorded here either way.

* **Email me the daily digest**: one email for this project a day, at most, with the latest findings and a count of the rest, and only when something new happened. **Each person turns it on for themselves**: nobody gets it until they do. The card says who gets it.
* **Send me a test** sends the digest to your own address, showing your latest finding, marked as a test.
* **Slack**: the daily digest posted to one channel per project, the one picked when Slack was added. Connect it with **Add to Slack** in [Integrations](https://docs.citino.ai/guides/account/integrations.md).
* **Quiet hours** are not available yet. An alert is raised whenever it happens, overnight included.

## Who can do what

Owners, admins and editors can change rules, thresholds and mutes, and send a test. A viewer reads the rules and the feed, and turns their own daily email on or off.

## Empty and error states

* **Nothing crossed its band in this window**: the feed’s empty state, as above.
* **The alerts could not be read**: the feed failed and the rules still show.
* **Alerts are not set up for this project yet**: the rules are created the first time the screen loads, so this means the project could not be read. **Try again**.

## Related

> [card] [Within noise](https://docs.citino.ai/guides/within-noise.md)
>
> Why a move inside its band never fires.

> [card] [Drift labels](https://docs.citino.ai/guides/drift-labels.md)
>
> How an engine-wide move is labelled.

> [card] [Integrations](https://docs.citino.ai/guides/account/integrations.md)
>
> Add Slack.

> [card] [Overview](https://docs.citino.ai/guides/screens/overview.md)
>
> Where most findings link.


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