# Alerting

> Everything you need to know to start alerting on your metrics and logs with Last9.

Source: https://last9.io/docs/alerting/

Last9 Alerting lets you detect problems across your telemetry and route notifications to the people and tools that need to act. You define **Alert Rules** that evaluate a query on a schedule, see firing alerts live in the **Alert Monitor**, and deliver notifications through **Channels** like Slack, PagerDuty, and email.

:::tip[Alerting on anomalies]
For new anomaly-detection rules, start with [Adaptive Alerting](/docs/adaptive-alerting/), the supported option for detecting deviations from a learned metric baseline. Adaptive runs on metrics; for log or trace signals, first create [LogMetrics](/docs/streaming-aggregations/#transforming-logs-to-metrics-last9-logmetrics) or [TraceMetrics](/docs/streaming-aggregations/#transforming-traces-to-metrics-last9-tracemetrics).
:::

## Types of Alerts

Each Alert Rule alerts on **Metrics** or **Logs**. Use the no-code **Builder**, or write the query directly in PromQL (metrics) or LogQL (logs). To alert on traces, convert them to metrics with TraceMetrics.

On the [Rules](/docs/alert-rules/) page, **Telemetry** is one of the filters you can use to narrow the list.

:::note[Log rules and Scheduled Search]
A log Alert Rule and a [Scheduled Search](/docs/scheduled-search/) map to each other in both directions. Scheduled Search as a standalone surface will be deprecated in favor of log Alert Rules.
:::

## Navigating Alerting

Alerting is organized into three sections, accessible from the sidebar:

- **Monitor:** A live, auto-updating stream of every firing alert across all your rules — metrics and logs. Click any alert to open its details in place, including previous fires, bounds, and a link to the underlying rule. [Learn more](/docs/alert-monitor/). From here you can also [acknowledge](/docs/acknowledge-alerts/) an alert to record who is on it.
- **Rules:** A rules-first table of every Alert Rule with its status, telemetry type, severity, and creator. Create and edit rules with a live preview of when the rule would fire. Toggle to a grouped view to manage [Alert Groups](/docs/alert-rules/#alert-groups-view) and their settings. [Learn more](/docs/alert-rules/).
- **Channels:** Manage [Notification Channels](/docs/notification-channels/) — the destinations Last9 sends alert notifications to.

## Creating Your First Alert

1. Create an [Alert Rule](/docs/creating-an-alert-rule/) — choose Metrics or Logs, set a condition, and preview when it would fire.
2. Organize rules into [Alert Groups](/docs/alert-rules/#alert-groups-view) and configure group-level settings.
3. Add a [Notification Channel](/docs/notification-channels/) so alerts reach Slack, PagerDuty, email, or a webhook.
4. Watch firing alerts in the [Alert Monitor](/docs/alert-monitor/), and [acknowledge](/docs/acknowledge-alerts/) the ones you pick up.

Prefer a gitops workflow? See [Declarative Alerting via IaC](/docs/alerting-via-iac/).

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## Troubleshooting

Please get in touch with us on [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/Q3p2EEucx9) or [Email](mailto:support@last9.io) if you have any questions.