Notification channels

Watchflare delivers alert and resolution notifications through one or more notification channels, backed by the Shoutrrr library. Each channel is a Shoutrrr URL targeting a single destination (a Discord webhook, a Slack incoming webhook, an SMTP mailbox, a Telegram bot, etc.). Channels are managed from Settings > Notifications.

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Adding a channel

1. Go to Settings > Notifications.
2. Click Add channel. A side drawer opens.
3. Give the channel a name (e.g. Ops Discord), paste a Shoutrrr URL, and select one or more categories (see Notification categories).
4. Click Test to verify the URL works without persisting anything, then click Create.

You can add multiple channels. Each enabled channel receives every notification in the categories it subscribes to, independently.

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Notification categories

Every channel subscribes to one or more categories, chosen with the checkboxes in the Add or Edit drawer. A channel only receives a notification when it subscribes to that notification’s category, so you can route monitoring alerts to one destination and account security events to another.

Category	What it covers
Alerts	Monitoring alerts and their resolutions: a host going down, a metric threshold breached, an incident clearing.
Transactional	Account and security events: new login, password change, two-factor authentication changes, and email address changes. See Transactional notifications.

A channel with no category enabled receives nothing; a channel can subscribe to both.

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Transactional notifications

Beyond monitoring alerts, the Hub notifies you of security-relevant changes to your own account. These belong to the Transactional category and are delivered to every channel, and to the SMTP sender, that subscribes to it.

The following account events each trigger a notification:

Event	When it fires	Details included
New login	A successful sign-in, including after a two-factor challenge	Time, IP address, device (user agent)
Password changed	Your account password is changed	Time
Two-factor enabled	2FA is turned on	Time
Two-factor disabled	2FA is turned off	Time
Email changed	Your account email is changed. A notice also goes to the previous address	Time, new address
Email confirmed	Sent to the new address once it becomes the active email	Time

Changing your email produces two messages: one to the old address, so a compromised account cannot silently swap the address unnoticed, and one to the new address.

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URL formats

Discord

Format: discord://{token}@{webhook_id}

Build it from a Discord webhook URL like https://discord.com/api/webhooks/{webhook_id}/{token}:

• {webhook_id} is the first segment after /webhooks/
• {token} is the segment after the webhook id

To get the webhook URL: open a Discord channel > Edit Channel > Integrations > Create Webhook > copy the webhook URL.

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Slack

Format: slack://hook:{A}-{B}-{C}@webhook

Build it from a Slack Incoming Webhook URL like https://hooks.slack.com/services/{A}/{B}/{C}: join the three path segments with hyphens.

To get the webhook URL: go to api.slack.com/apps, create or open an app, enable Incoming Webhooks, and add a webhook to your workspace.

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Telegram

Format: telegram://{bot_token}@telegram?chats=@{channel_or_chat_id}

Step 1 - Create a bot and get the token:

1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather.
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts.
3. BotFather replies with your bot token (e.g. 7123456789:AAF...).

Step 2 - Get your chat ID:

1. Search for your bot by name and send it any message. The bot will not reply, but the message is what binds your chat to the bot.
2. Open https://api.telegram.org/bot{token}/getUpdates in a browser.
3. Find result[0].message.chat.id in the JSON response.

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Matrix

Format: matrix://{user}:{password}@{homeserver}/?rooms={room_id}

Use a dedicated Matrix account for the Hub. Get the room ID from the room’s advanced settings.

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Ntfy

Format: ntfy://{username}:{password}@{host}/{topic}

For a public ntfy.sh topic without auth: ntfy://ntfy.sh/{topic}.

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Gotify

Format: gotify://{host}/{token}

Generate an application token in your Gotify instance under Apps > Create Application.

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SMTP

Format: smtp://{user}:{password}@{host}:{port}/?fromAddress={from}&toAddresses={to}

Example for Gmail (with an app password):

smtp://you@gmail.com:abcdefghijklmnop@smtp.gmail.com:587/?fromAddress=you@gmail.com&toAddresses=alerts@example.com

For multiple recipients, comma-separate the toAddresses.

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Generic webhook

Format: generic://{host}{path} (or generic+https://... to force HTTPS)

The Hub sends a POST with a JSON body containing title and message fields. Use this for any service not natively supported by Shoutrrr.

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Test before save

The Test button inside the Add or Edit drawer sends a one-off notification using the URL currently in the form, without persisting anything. Use it to verify the URL works before clicking Create or Save.

The same button also works on saved channels: when the URL field is empty during edit, the test uses the stored URL.

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Managing channels

Action	How
Enable / disable	Toggle the switch next to the channel
Edit	Click the pencil icon. The drawer opens with the current name, categories, and a masked preview of the URL; leave the URL field empty to keep the stored value.
Delete	Click the trash icon and confirm. Cannot be undone.
Test	Click the Send icon in the row, or the Test button in the drawer. Rate limited per channel.

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Upgrading from v0.37 or earlier

The webhook_endpoints table from older versions is dropped during the upgrade. The URL format used to be native (e.g. the full Discord webhook URL), but Shoutrrr expects a compact form (discord://TOKEN@WEBHOOK_ID). Re-add your destinations from Settings > Notifications after the upgrade.

The environment variable SMTP_ENCRYPTION_KEY is renamed to NOTIFICATION_ENCRYPTION_KEY. Rename it in your .env before starting v0.38 or later.

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Next step

Configure alert thresholds to control when notifications fire. See Alert Rules.