Update an alert

Updates an existing alert by its ID. You only need to provide the fields you want to change.

PATCH https://telemetry.betterstack.com/api/v2/alerts/{id}

URL parameters

id
required integer

Headers

Authorization
required string

Body parameters

name
string
alert_type
string
operator
string
value
number
string_value
string
check_period
integer
query_period
integer
aggregation_interval
integer
confirmation_period
integer
recovery_period
integer
anomaly_sensitivity
number
anomaly_trigger
string
series_names
array
source_variable
string
source_mode
string
source_platforms
array
incident_cause
string
incident_per_series
boolean
escalation_target
object
call
boolean
sms
boolean
email
boolean
push
boolean
critical_alert
boolean
metadata
object
paused
boolean
200

Response body

{
  "data": {
    "id": "789",
    "type": "alert",
    "attributes": {
      "name": "High Error Rate Alert",
      "alert_type": "threshold",
      "operator": "higher_than",
      "value": 150.0,
      "query_period": 300,
      "confirmation_period": 60,
      "recovery_period": 300,
      "escalation_target": {
        "policy_id": 123,
        "policy_name": "Critical Alerts Policy"
      },
      "paused": false,
      "paused_reason": null,
      "created_at": "2026-02-20T10:00:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-02-24T15:00:00Z"
    }
  }
}
404

Updating the metadata object will replace the entire object, not merge it. Any keys not included in the update request will be removed.

Example request

cURL
curl --request PATCH \
  --url https://telemetry.betterstack.com/api/v2/alerts/789 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "value": 150.0,
    "confirmation_period": 60
  }'


Escalation targets

The escalation_target object determines where notifications are sent:

  • For current team, use "current_team" as a string.

  • Reference a different team using { "team_id": 123 } or { "team_name": "Ops Team" }.

  • Reference an escalation policy using { "policy_id": 456 } or { "policy_name": "Critical Policy" }. When escalating to a policy, notification channels (call, sms, etc.) are managed by the policy itself and are ignored in the API request.

Metadata

The metadata object allows you to attach custom key-value pairs to an alert. This information is included in incident notifications for extra context. Both keys and values must be strings.

All alert metadata will be overwritten when the metadata field is used. Ommited keys will be removed.

Metadata example
{
  "metadata": {
    "environment": "production",
    "runbook": "https://wiki.example.com/runbooks/high-error-rate"
  }
}