Overview

Customize your alerts in Synthetic Monitoring to give on-call responders meaningful context. Synthetic Monitoring’s message templating system lets you enrich alerts with test details, extract data from test results, and route notifications conditionally based on the failure.

You can customize notifications using:

• Pre-filled content: Start with a structured starting point.
• Templated variables: Enrich your notifications with dynamic content.
• Conditional logic: Adapt alert messages across different test types and workflows.
• Advanced usage: Structure complex messages using handlebars templating.
• Custom notification display: Show only your custom message without default enriched content.
• Simulate notifications: Test your notification messages by sending simulated notifications.

Pre-filled monitor messages

Synthetic Monitoring provides pre-filled messages with metadata such as:

• Test name
• Monitor ID
• Failing locations
• Last failed test run information
• Time the test started failing

These values appear by default in most notification channels. You can override or extend the message using templating.

Examples:

{{#with synthetics.attributes.result.request}}
We made a {{method}} request to `{{{url}}}`{{#if headers}} with the following headers:

{{#each headers}}
{{@key}}={{this}}
{{/each}}

{{/if}}
{{#if body}}And the body:

{{{body}}}

{{/if}}
{{/with}}

{{#with synthetics.attributes.result.response}}
We received an HTTP {{httpVersion}} response with a {{statusCode}} status code{{#if headers}} with the following headers:

{{#each headers}}
{{@key}}={{this}}
{{/each}}

{{/if}}
{{#if redirects}}
Redirections:
{{#each redirects}}
* {{statusCode}} redirect to `{{{location}}}`
{{/each}}
{{/if}}
The body's size was {{eval "humanize_bytes(bodySize)"}}{{#if body}} and contained:

{{{body}}}

{{/if}}
{{/with}}

{{! Websocket request and response details }}
{{#with synthetics.attributes.result}}
{{#if handshake }}
The handshake received a response with the {{handshake.response.statusCode}} status code.
{{/if}}
{{#if request}}
A WebSocket request was made with the message:

{{{request.message}}}

{{/if}}
{{#if response}}
and the response closed with status code {{response.close.statusCode}} and reason `{{response.close.reason}}`
{{#if response.message}}, containing the message:

{{{response.message}}}

{{else}}.{{/if}}
{{/if}}
{{/with}}

{{#each synthetics.attributes.result.variables.config}}
* **Name:** {{name}}
  Type: {{type}}
  Value: {{#if secure}}*Obfuscated (value hidden)*{{else}}{{value}}{{/if}}
{{/each}}

{{#each synthetics.attributes.result.variables.extracted}}
* **Name:** {{name}}
  Global Variable ID: {{id}}
  Value: {{#if secure}}*Obfuscated (value hidden)*{{else}}{{val}}{{/if}}
{{/each}}

{{! List extracted variables across all successful steps }}
# Extracted Variables
{{#each synthetics.attributes.result.steps}}
  {{#each variables.extracted}}
  * **Name**: `{{name}}`
    Value: {{#if secure}}*Obfuscated (value hidden)*{{else}}`{{{val}}}`{{/if}}
  {{/each}}
{{/each}}

{{#each synthetics.attributes.result.steps}}
  {{#if extractedValue}}
  * **Name**: {{extractedValue.name}}
    **Value:** {{#if extractedValue.secure}}*Obfuscated (value hidden)*{{else}}{{extractedValue.value}}{{/if}}
  {{/if}}
{{/each}}

Display custom notifications message

Synthetic Monitoring notifications support the ability to display only the custom notification message in alert notifications, hiding all default enriched content such as query details, tags, screenshots, and footers.

By default, all monitors include enriched details in the alert message. This may include:

• Test metadata
• Failing step information
• Screenshots
• Tags
• Links to Datadog resources

Notification presets

You can select from the following options to hide or display the information relevant to you:

Example

See Monitor Notifications for more information.

Simulate notifications

You can test your notification messages by sending simulated notifications. To do this:

1. Add a notification handle to your monitor message
2. Click the Simulate Notifications button:

3. Select the notification type you want to test and click Send:

Simulated notifications include [TEST] in their subject lines and use a default monitor name when needed.

Examples:

Important notes about simulated notifications:

• The test results used in simulations are standardized sample data, not actual results from your specific test configuration.
• Results vary based on test type, subtype (for API tests), and notification type:
  • Alert notifications: Simulated failure data
  • Recovery notifications: Simulated success data
• All users receive the same simulated data regardless of their test setup.

Further Reading

Documentation, liens et articles supplémentaires utiles:

Use template variables in your Synthetic Monitoring notificationsDOCUMENTATION Use conditional alerting in your Synthetic Monitoring notificationsDOCUMENTATION Learn how to integrate Synthetic monitors with StatuspageDOCUMENTATION