---
title: Configuration
sort_rank: 3
nav_icon: sliders
---

# Configuration

[Alertmanager](https://github.com/prometheus/alertmanager) is configured via
command-line flags and a configuration file.
While the command-line flags configure immutable system parameters, the
configuration file defines inhibition rules, notification routing and
notification receivers.

The [visual editor](/webtools/alerting/routing-tree-editor) can assist in
building routing trees.

To view all available command-line flags, run `alertmanager -h`.

Alertmanager can reload its configuration at runtime. If the new configuration
is not well-formed, the changes will not be applied and an error is logged.
A configuration reload is triggered by sending a `SIGHUP` to the process or
sending a HTTP POST request to the `/-/reload` endpoint.

## Configuration file

To specify which configuration file to load, use the `--config.file` flag.

```bash
./alertmanager --config.file=simple.yml
```

The file is written in the [YAML format](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML),
defined by the scheme described below.
Brackets indicate that a parameter is optional. For non-list parameters the
value is set to the specified default.

Generic placeholders are defined as follows:

* `<duration>`: a duration matching the regular expression `[0-9]+(ms|[smhdwy])`
* `<labelname>`: a string matching the regular expression `[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*`
* `<labelvalue>`: a string of unicode characters
* `<filepath>`: a valid path in the current working directory
* `<boolean>`: a boolean that can take the values `true` or `false`
* `<string>`: a regular string
* `<secret>`: a regular string that is a secret, such as a password
* `<tmpl_string>`: a string which is template-expanded before usage
* `<tmpl_secret>`: a string which is template-expanded before usage that is a secret

The other placeholders are specified separately.

A valid example file can be found [here](https://github.com/prometheus/alertmanager/blob/master/doc/examples/simple.yml).

The global configuration specifies parameters that are valid in all other
configuration contexts. They also serve as defaults for other configuration
sections.

```yaml
global:
  # ResolveTimeout is the time after which an alert is declared resolved
  # if it has not been updated.
  [ resolve_timeout: <duration> | default = 5m ]

  # The default SMTP From header field.
  [ smtp_from: <tmpl_string> ]
  # The default SMTP smarthost used for sending emails, including port number.
  # Port number usually is 25, or 587 for SMTP over TLS (sometimes referred to as STARTTLS).
  # Example: smtp.example.org:587
  [ smtp_smarthost: <string> ]
  # The default hostname to identify to the SMTP server.
  [ smtp_hello: <string> | default = "localhost" ]
  [ smtp_auth_username: <string> ]
  # SMTP Auth using LOGIN and PLAIN.
  [ smtp_auth_password: <secret> ]
  # SMTP Auth using PLAIN.
  [ smtp_auth_identity: <string> ]
  # SMTP Auth using CRAM-MD5. 
  [ smtp_auth_secret: <secret> ]
  # The default SMTP TLS requirement.
  [ smtp_require_tls: <bool> | default = true ]

  # The API URL to use for Slack notifications.
  [ slack_api_url: <string> ]
  [ victorops_api_key: <string> ]
  [ victorops_api_url: <string> | default = "https://alert.victorops.com/integrations/generic/20131114/alert/" ]
  [ pagerduty_url: <string> | default = "https://events.pagerduty.com/v2/enqueue" ]
  [ opsgenie_api_key: <string> ]
  [ opsgenie_api_url: <string> | default = "https://api.opsgenie.com/" ]
  [ hipchat_api_url: <string> | default = "https://api.hipchat.com/" ]
  [ hipchat_auth_token: <secret> ]
  [ wechat_api_url: <string> | default = "https://qyapi.weixin.qq.com/cgi-bin/" ]
  [ wechat_api_secret: <secret> ]
  [ wechat_api_corp_id: <string> ]

  # The default HTTP client configuration
  [ http_config: <http_config> ]

# Files from which custom notification template definitions are read.
# The last component may use a wildcard matcher, e.g. 'templates/*.tmpl'.
templates:
  [ - <filepath> ... ]

# The root node of the routing tree.
route: <route>

# A list of notification receivers.
receivers:
  - <receiver> ...

# A list of inhibition rules.
inhibit_rules:
  [ - <inhibit_rule> ... ]
```

## `<route>`

A route block defines a node in a routing tree and its children. Its optional
configuration parameters are inherited from its parent node if not set.

Every alert enters the routing tree at the configured top-level route, which
must match all alerts (i.e. not have any configured matchers).
It then traverses the child nodes. If `continue` is set to false, it stops
after the first matching child. If `continue` is true on a matching node, the
alert will continue matching against subsequent siblings.
If an alert does not match any children of a node (no matching child nodes, or
none exist), the alert is handled based on the configuration parameters of the
current node.

```yaml
[ receiver: <string> ]
[ group_by: '[' <labelname>, ... ']' ]

# Whether an alert should continue matching subsequent sibling nodes.
[ continue: <boolean> | default = false ]

# A set of equality matchers an alert has to fulfill to match the node.
match:
  [ <labelname>: <labelvalue>, ... ]

# A set of regex-matchers an alert has to fulfill to match the node.
match_re:
  [ <labelname>: <regex>, ... ]

# How long to initially wait to send a notification for a group
# of alerts. Allows to wait for an inhibiting alert to arrive or collect
# more initial alerts for the same group. (Usually ~0s to few minutes.)
[ group_wait: <duration> | default = 30s ]

# How long to wait before sending a notification about new alerts that
# are added to a group of alerts for which an initial notification has
# already been sent. (Usually ~5m or more.)
[ group_interval: <duration> | default = 5m ]

# How long to wait before sending a notification again if it has already
# been sent successfully for an alert. (Usually ~3h or more).
[ repeat_interval: <duration> | default = 4h ]

# Zero or more child routes.
routes:
  [ - <route> ... ]
```

### Example

```yaml
# The root route with all parameters, which are inherited by the child
# routes if they are not overwritten.
route:
  receiver: 'default-receiver'
  group_wait: 30s
  group_interval: 5m
  repeat_interval: 4h
  group_by: [cluster, alertname]
  # All alerts that do not match the following child routes
  # will remain at the root node and be dispatched to 'default-receiver'.
  routes:
  # All alerts with service=mysql or service=cassandra
  # are dispatched to the database pager.
  - receiver: 'database-pager'
    group_wait: 10s
    match_re:
      service: mysql|cassandra
  # All alerts with the team=frontend label match this sub-route.
  # They are grouped by product and environment rather than cluster
  # and alertname.
  - receiver: 'frontend-pager'
    group_by: [product, environment]
    match:
      team: frontend
```

## `<inhibit_rule>`

An inhibition rule mutes an alert (target) matching a set of matchers
when an alert (source) exists that matches another set of matchers.
Both target and source alerts must have the same label values 
for the label names in the `equal` list.

__Alerts can inhibit themselves. Avoid writing inhibition rules where
an alert matches both source and target.__

```yaml
# Matchers that have to be fulfilled in the alerts to be muted.
target_match:
  [ <labelname>: <labelvalue>, ... ]
target_match_re:
  [ <labelname>: <regex>, ... ]

# Matchers for which one or more alerts have to exist for the
# inhibition to take effect.
source_match:
  [ <labelname>: <labelvalue>, ... ]
source_match_re:
  [ <labelname>: <regex>, ... ]

# Labels that must have an equal value in the source and target
# alert for the inhibition to take effect.
[ equal: '[' <labelname>, ... ']' ]

```

## `<http_config>`

A `http_config` allows configuring the HTTP client that the receiver uses to
communicate with HTTP-based API services.

```yaml
# Note that `basic_auth`, `bearer_token` and `bearer_token_file` options are
# mutually exclusive.

# Sets the `Authorization` header with the configured username and password.
basic_auth:
  [ username: <string> ]
  [ password: <secret> ]

# Sets the `Authorization` header with the configured bearer token.
[ bearer_token: <secret> ]

# Sets the `Authorization` header with the bearer token read from the configured file.
[ bearer_token_file: <filepath> ]

# Configures the TLS settings.
tls_config:
  # CA certificate to validate the server certificate with.
  [ ca_file: <filepath> ]
  # Certificate and key files for client cert authentication to the server.
  [ cert_file: <filepath> ]
  [ key_file: <filepath> ]
  # ServerName extension to indicate the name of the server.
  # http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4366#section-3.1
  [ server_name: <string> ]
  # Disable validation of the server certificate.
  [ insecure_skip_verify: <boolean> | default = false]

# Optional proxy URL.
[ proxy_url: <string> ]
```

## `<receiver>`

Receiver is a named configuration of one or more notification integrations.

__We're not actively adding new receivers, we recommend implementing custom notification integrations via the [webhook](/docs/alerting/configuration/#webhook_config) receiver.__

```yaml
# The unique name of the receiver.
name: <string>

# Configurations for several notification integrations.
email_configs:
  [ - <email_config>, ... ]
hipchat_configs:
  [ - <hipchat_config>, ... ]
pagerduty_configs:
  [ - <pagerduty_config>, ... ]
pushover_configs:
  [ - <pushover_config>, ... ]
slack_configs:
  [ - <slack_config>, ... ]
opsgenie_configs:
  [ - <opsgenie_config>, ... ]
webhook_configs:
  [ - <webhook_config>, ... ]
victorops_configs:
  [ - <victorops_config>, ... ]
wechat_configs:
  [ - <wechat_config>, ... ]
```

## `<email_config>`

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = false ]

# The email address to send notifications to.
to: <tmpl_string>

# The sender address.
[ from: <tmpl_string> | default = global.smtp_from ]

# The SMTP host through which emails are sent.
[ smarthost: <string> | default = global.smtp_smarthost ]

# The hostname to identify to the SMTP server.
[ hello: <string> | default = global.smtp_hello ]

# SMTP authentication information.
[ auth_username: <string> | default = global.smtp_auth_username ]
[ auth_password: <secret> | default = global.smtp_auth_password ]
[ auth_secret: <secret> | default = global.smtp_auth_secret ]
[ auth_identity: <string> | default = global.smtp_auth_identity ]

# The SMTP TLS requirement.
[ require_tls: <bool> | default = global.smtp_require_tls ]

# The HTML body of the email notification.
[ html: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "email.default.html" . }}' ]
# The text body of the email notification.
[ text: <tmpl_string> ]

# Further headers email header key/value pairs. Overrides any headers
# previously set by the notification implementation.
[ headers: { <string>: <tmpl_string>, ... } ]
```

## `<hipchat_config>`

HipChat notifications use a [Build Your Own](https://confluence.atlassian.com/hc/integrations-with-hipchat-server-683508267.html) integration.

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = false ]

# The HipChat Room ID.
room_id: <tmpl_string>
# The auth token.
[ auth_token: <secret> | default = global.hipchat_auth_token ]
# The URL to send API requests to.
[ api_url: <string> | default = global.hipchat_api_url ]

# See https://www.hipchat.com/docs/apiv2/method/send_room_notification
# A label to be shown in addition to the sender's name.
[ from:  <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "hipchat.default.from" . }}' ]
# The message body.
[ message:  <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "hipchat.default.message" . }}' ]
# Whether this message should trigger a user notification.
[ notify:  <boolean> | default = false ]
# Determines how the message is treated by the alertmanager and rendered inside HipChat. Valid values are 'text' and 'html'.
[ message_format:  <string> | default = 'text' ]
# Background color for message.
[ color:  <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ if eq .Status "firing" }}red{{ else }}green{{ end }}' ]

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

## `<pagerduty_config>`

PagerDuty notifications are sent via the [PagerDuty API](https://developer.pagerduty.com/documentation/integration/events).
PagerDuty provides documentation on how to integrate [here](https://www.pagerduty.com/docs/guides/prometheus-integration-guide/).

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = true ]

# The following two options are mututally exclusive.
# The PagerDuty integration key (when using PagerDuty integration type `Events API v2`).
routing_key: <tmpl_secret>
# The PagerDuty integration key (when using PagerDuty integration type `Prometheus`).
service_key: <tmpl_secret>

# The URL to send API requests to
[ url: <string> | default = global.pagerduty_url ]

# The client identification of the Alertmanager.
[ client:  <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "pagerduty.default.client" . }}' ]
# A backlink to the sender of the notification.
[ client_url:  <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "pagerduty.default.clientURL" . }}' ]

# A description of the incident.
[ description: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "pagerduty.default.description" .}}' ]

# Severity of the incident.
[ severity: <tmpl_string> | default = 'error' ]

# A set of arbitrary key/value pairs that provide further detail
# about the incident.
[ details: { <string>: <tmpl_string>, ... } | default = {
  firing:       '{{ template "pagerduty.default.instances" .Alerts.Firing }}'
  resolved:     '{{ template "pagerduty.default.instances" .Alerts.Resolved }}'
  num_firing:   '{{ .Alerts.Firing | len }}'
  num_resolved: '{{ .Alerts.Resolved | len }}'
} ]

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

## `<pushover_config>`

Pushover notifications are sent via the [Pushover API](https://pushover.net/api).

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = true ]

# The recipient user’s user key.
user_key: <secret>

# Your registered application’s API token, see https://pushover.net/apps
token: <secret>

# Notification title.
[ title: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "pushover.default.title" . }}' ]

# Notification message.
[ message: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "pushover.default.message" . }}' ]

# A supplementary URL shown alongside the message.
[ url: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "pushover.default.url" . }}' ]

# Priority, see https://pushover.net/api#priority
[ priority: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ if eq .Status "firing" }}2{{ else }}0{{ end }}' ]

# How often the Pushover servers will send the same notification to the user.
# Must be at least 30 seconds.
[ retry: <duration> | default = 1m ]

# How long your notification will continue to be retried for, unless the user
# acknowledges the notification.
[ expire: <duration> | default = 1h ]

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

## `<slack_config>`

Slack notifications are sent via [Slack
webhooks](https://api.slack.com/incoming-webhooks). The notification contains
an [attachment](https://api.slack.com/docs/message-attachments).

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = false ]

# The Slack webhook URL.
[ api_url: <secret> | default = global.slack_api_url ]

# The channel or user to send notifications to.
channel: <tmpl_string>

# API request data as defined by the Slack webhook API.
[ icon_emoji: <tmpl_string> ]
[ icon_url: <tmpl_string> ]
[ link_names: <boolean> | default = false ]
[ username: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.username" . }}' ]
# The following parameters define the attachment.
actions:
  [ <action_config> ... ]
[ color: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ if eq .Status "firing" }}danger{{ else }}good{{ end }}' ]
[ fallback: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.fallback" . }}' ]
fields:
  [ <field_config> ... ]
[ footer: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.footer" . }}' ]
[ pretext: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.pretext" . }}' ]
[ short_fields: <boolean> | default = false ]
[ text: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.text" . }}' ]
[ title: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.title" . }}' ]
[ title_link: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "slack.default.titlelink" . }}' ]
[ image_url: <tmpl_string> ]
[ thumb_url: <tmpl_string> ]

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

### `<action_config>`

The fields are documented in the [Slack API documentation](https://api.slack.com/docs/message-attachments#action_fields).

```yaml
type: <tmpl_string>
text: <tmpl_string>
url: <tmpl_string>
[ style: <tmpl_string> [ default = '' ]
```

### `<field_config>`

The fields are documented in the [Slack API documentation](https://api.slack.com/docs/message-attachments#fields).

```yaml
title: <tmpl_string>
value: <tmpl_string>
[ short: <boolean> | default = slack_config.short_fields ]
```

## `<opsgenie_config>`

OpsGenie notifications are sent via the [OpsGenie API](https://www.opsgenie.com/docs/web-api/alert-api).

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = true ]

# The API key to use when talking to the OpsGenie API.
[ api_key: <secret> | default = global.opsgenie_api_key ]

# The host to send OpsGenie API requests to.
[ api_url: <string> | default = global.opsgenie_api_url ]

# Alert text limited to 130 characters.
[ message: <tmpl_string> ]

# A description of the incident.
[ description: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "opsgenie.default.description" . }}' ]

# A backlink to the sender of the notification.
[ source: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "opsgenie.default.source" . }}' ]

# A set of arbitrary key/value pairs that provide further detail
# about the incident.
[ details: { <string>: <tmpl_string>, ... } ]

# Comma separated list of team responsible for notifications.
[ teams: <tmpl_string> ]

# Comma separated list of tags attached to the notifications.
[ tags: <tmpl_string> ]

# Additional alert note.
[ note: <tmpl_string> ]

# Priority level of alert. Possible values are P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5.
[ priority: <tmpl_string> ]

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

## `<victorops_config>`

VictorOps notifications are sent out via the [VictorOps API](https://help.victorops.com/knowledge-base/victorops-restendpoint-integration/)

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = true ]

# The API key to use when talking to the VictorOps API.
[ api_key: <secret> | default = global.victorops_api_key ]

# The VictorOps API URL.
[ api_url: <string> | default = global.victorops_api_url ]

# A key used to map the alert to a team.
routing_key: <tmpl_string>

# Describes the behavior of the alert (CRITICAL, WARNING, INFO).
[ message_type: <tmpl_string> | default = 'CRITICAL' ]

# Contains summary of the alerted problem.
[ entity_display_name: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "victorops.default.entity_display_name" . }}' ]

# Contains long explanation of the alerted problem.
[ state_message: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "victorops.default.state_message" . }}' ]

# The monitoring tool the state message is from.
[ monitoring_tool: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "victorops.default.monitoring_tool" . }}' ]

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

## `<webhook_config>`

The webhook receiver allows configuring a generic receiver.

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = true ]

# The endpoint to send HTTP POST requests to.
url: <string>

# The HTTP client's configuration.
[ http_config: <http_config> | default = global.http_config ]
```

The Alertmanager
will send HTTP POST requests in the following JSON format to the configured
endpoint:

```
{
  "version": "4",
  "groupKey": <string>,    // key identifying the group of alerts (e.g. to deduplicate)
  "status": "<resolved|firing>",
  "receiver": <string>,
  "groupLabels": <object>,
  "commonLabels": <object>,
  "commonAnnotations": <object>,
  "externalURL": <string>,  // backlink to the Alertmanager.
  "alerts": [
    {
      "status": "<resolved|firing>",
      "labels": <object>,
      "annotations": <object>,
      "startsAt": "<rfc3339>",
      "endsAt": "<rfc3339>",
      "generatorURL": <string> // identifies the entity that caused the alert
    },
    ...
  ]
}
```

There is a list of
[integrations](/docs/operating/integrations/#alertmanager-webhook-receiver) with
this feature.

## `<wechat_config>`

WeChat notifications are sent via the [WeChat
API](http://admin.wechat.com/wiki/index.php?title=Customer_Service_Messages).

```yaml
# Whether or not to notify about resolved alerts.
[ send_resolved: <boolean> | default = false ]

# The API key to use when talking to the WeChat API.
[ api_secret: <secret> | default = global.wechat_api_secret ]

# The WeChat API URL.
[ api_url: <string> | default = global.wechat_api_url ]

# The corp id for authentication.
[ corp_id: <string> | default = global.wechat_api_corp_id ]

# API request data as defined by the WeChat API.
[ message: <tmpl_string> | default = '{{ template "wechat.default.message" . }}' ]
[ agent_id: <string> | default = '{{ template "wechat.default.agent_id" . }}' ]
[ to_user: <string> | default = '{{ template "wechat.default.to_user" . }}' ]
[ to_party: <string> | default = '{{ template "wechat.default.to_party" . }}' ]
[ to_tag: <string> | default = '{{ template "wechat.default.to_tag" . }}' ]
```
