--- title: "Incident management in Slack and the dashboard" description: "Incident management with /incident in Slack, a channel per incident, roles, SEV1 to SEV4, a live timeline, Markdown updates, postmortems and status page publishing." url: https://spectate.net/features/incident-management last_updated: 2026-10-26 --- # Run incidents without switching tools > Declare an incident from the dashboard, from Slack or straight from an alert. Assign a commander, post updates, keep customers informed on your status page and write the postmortem in one place. - **A Slack channel per incident.** Opened, announced and kept in sync. - **Roles and severities.** Commander, communications lead, SEV1 to SEV4. - **Postmortems built in.** Started from the incident's own timeline. ## One timeline from declared to resolved Each update moves the incident from investigating to resolved. Roles, severity changes, updates and status page posts land on one timeline, whether they happened in the dashboard or in Slack. - SEV1 to SEV4 - Updates in Markdown - Every change with the person who made it ## Declare, update and resolve from Slack Type /incident declare, use the shortcut on a message or press the button on an alert. Spectate opens a channel such as #inc-42-checkout-errors and keeps it in sync with the dashboard. - /incident declare, update, roles, status-page, resolve - Pinned header that stays in sync - Actions attributed to the person's account ## Tell customers from the same screen Publish to your status page from the incident, in the dashboard or from Slack: pick the affected components, write the update and choose whether to email subscribers. - Impact per component - Optional email to subscribers ## A postmortem that starts half written Start from a template that already holds the facts and a timeline built from every update, then write the rest in Markdown. - Pre-filled facts and timeline - Root cause and action items ## Everything in incident management - **Alerts are not incidents.** Alerts are signals; incidents are the human response. - **Incident numbers.** INC-42, the same in the dashboard and in Slack. - **Announcements channel.** New incidents announced in a Slack channel you choose. - **Automatic incidents.** An escalation step can open one, with its Slack channel. - **Slack user linking.** Slack users act with their own Spectate permissions. - **Backdated updates.** Set when it happened, from the dashboard or Slack. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do I declare an incident in Slack? Install the Spectate Slack app from Integrations, then type /incident declare followed by an optional title, or use the Declare incident shortcut on any message. A modal asks for the title, severity and summary. Spectate creates the incident, opens a dedicated channel if that setting is on, and posts an announcement. ### Does every incident get its own Slack channel? Yes, by default. Whether an incident is declared in Slack, in the dashboard or by an escalation path, Spectate creates a channel such as #inc-42-checkout-errors with a pinned header and actions. You can turn this off and change the channel prefix in the Slack settings. ### What severities and stages does Spectate use? Severities run from SEV1 (critical) to SEV4 (low). Incidents move through four stages: investigating, identified, monitoring and resolved. Each update sets the stage, and severity changes are recorded on the timeline with the person who made them. ### Can alerts open incidents automatically? Yes. Add a create incident step to an escalation path and Spectate opens an incident when that step runs, with a Slack channel if Slack is connected. Slack alert messages also have a Declare incident button for alerts that need a person to decide. ### Does Spectate help write postmortems? Yes. Each incident has a postmortem editor that starts from a template with the severity, start and resolution times, duration and a timeline built from the incident's updates. You add the summary, impact, root cause, contributing factors, resolution and action items in Markdown, then mark it published. ### Can I update my status page from an incident? Yes. From the incident in the dashboard, or with /incident status-page in Slack, choose the status page, the affected components and their impact, write the message and decide whether to email subscribers. The public page's component status and uptime bars follow the impact you set. ## Pricing Included on every plan, from €15 a month (€0.50–€0.75 per monitor). 14-day trial, no credit card. See https://spectate.net/pricing. ## Related - [Status pages](https://spectate.net/features/status-pages): Hosted status pages on your domain with automatic TLS, 8 themes, 8 fonts, 6 languages, incidents, maintenance, email subscribers, RSS and a Statuspage-compatible API. - [Alerting](https://spectate.net/features/alerting): Alerts by email, Slack, Teams, Discord, Telegram, Pushover, webhook, SMS and phone call, with escalation paths that branch on severity, working hours, source and labels. - [On-call](https://spectate.net/features/on-call): On-call schedules with rotations, handoffs and overrides. Pages by email, SMS and phone call with press 1 to acknowledge. Unlimited members from €48 a month on Team.