Email alerts
You can trigger alerts in AlertHub simply by sending an email. This is useful when a system only supports email notifications, when you want to forward existing alert emails, or when you need to raise an alert quickly from your inbox.
How It Works
AlertHub listens for incoming emails at dedicated addresses on sendalert.thealerthub.com. When an email is received, it is converted into an alert with the following mapping:
| Email field | Alert field |
|---|---|
| Subject | ah_title |
| Body | ah_description |
| Recipient address | ah_key (Project Secret Key) and ah_level |
| Sender | ah_source (prefixed with Email:) |
Email Addresses
The recipient address determines both which project receives the alert and its severity level.
Format:
{YOUR_PROJECT_SECRET_KEY}@{level}.sendalert.thealerthub.comReplace {YOUR_PROJECT_SECRET_KEY} with the 64-character Project Secret Key from your project dashboard.
Alert Levels
| Level | Recipient address |
|---|---|
| Info (default) | {ah_key}@sendalert.thealerthub.com |
| Info | {ah_key}@info.sendalert.thealerthub.com |
| Warning | {ah_key}@warning.sendalert.thealerthub.com |
| Critical | {ah_key}@critical.sendalert.thealerthub.com |
Tip: When using
@sendalert.thealerthub.com(without a level prefix), the alert level defaults to info.
Example
Given a Project Secret Key of a1b2c3d4e5f6... (64 characters):
To: [email protected]
Subject: Database connection pool exhausted
Body:
Connection pool on prod-db-01 reached 100% capacity at 14:32 UTC.
Active connections: 50/50.This creates a warning alert titled “Database connection pool exhausted” with the body as the description, and the source set to Email: [email protected].
Requirements
- The subject line must not be empty — it becomes the alert title.
- The Project Secret Key in the recipient address must be exactly 64 characters.
- The email must be sent to one of the four accepted domains listed above.
Forwarded Emails
If you forward an existing email to AlertHub, the original message content and subject are extracted automatically. Common forward headers from Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and other clients are stripped so the alert reflects the original notification, not the forwarding metadata.
Use Cases
- Forward monitoring alerts from legacy systems that only send email.
- Devices with email-only output — NAS, printers, UPS units, network appliances.
- Manual alerts — send an email from your phone or desktop client in seconds.
- Email rules and filters — configure Outlook, Gmail, or server-side rules to auto-forward specific messages to AlertHub.
Security Considerations
- Your Project Secret Key is part of the recipient address. Avoid sharing alert email addresses publicly or in untrusted forwarding rules.
- Restrict auto-forwarding rules to trusted senders whenever possible.
- For programmatic or server-to-server integrations, consider the Ingestion API instead — it keeps your secret key out of email headers and logs.
Related
- Ingestion API — send alerts via HTTP for full control over payload and custom variables.
- Getting Started — create a project and find your Project Secret Key.