# Alerts

> Set up ClickClacks alerts: what you can watch, sensitivity, how the expected range is learned from the same weekday, baseline learning, email recipients, reading a fired alert, and muting.

- Canonical URL: https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/alerts
- Section: Product guides
- Last updated: 2026-09-26

An alert watches a number you already measure, learns its normal range for each day of the week, and tells you when it leaves that range, along with where the change is concentrated.

## When to use it {#when}

- Know when sign-up conversion drops, without checking a chart every morning.
- Hear when a source stops sending, before a week of data is missing.
- Watch a launch closely for a few days.

## Create an alert {#create}

1. Go to **Alerts** and click **New alert**. You can also press ⌘K and choose **New alert**, or pick **Watch this…** from a board tile’s menu.
2. Under **Watch**, pick a metric:
   - **Overview KPI**: _Pageviews, daily_ or _Sessions, daily_.
   - **Saved funnel**: any funnel’s conversion, such as _Checkout conversion_.
   - **Retention**: _Week 1 retention_.
   - **Source volume**: _Events from_ any of your sources.
3. Under **Tell me about**, choose a sensitivity:
   - **Big changes only** (the default): roughly one alert a month on a settled metric.
   - **Moderate**: roughly one a week. A few will turn out to be nothing.
   - **Everything unusual**: several a week. Useful while you are watching a launch.
4. Check **What we have to work with**. It shows how many days of history exist and whether the baseline is solid or still learning.
5. Under **Delivery**, in-app is always on for every member. Tick **Email** and choose who gets it. You are selected by default.
6. Click **Start watching**. The alert is named after its metric.

## How the range is built {#range}

Traffic on a Monday doesn’t look like traffic on a Saturday, so each day is compared with the **same weekday** over the previous six weeks:

- The **expected value** is the middle (median) of those six same-weekday values.
- The **range** around it is based on how much those values usually vary. Big changes only gives the widest range, and Everything unusual the narrowest.
- Very small numbers can’t fire an alert. For example, a count needs enough volume and a real change behind it before a dip counts.

A metric becomes available once there is at least one earlier matching weekday, so a new project waits a few days before its first alert. Monitors are checked every few minutes.

## Baseline learning {#learning}

Until a metric has **42 days** (six weeks) of real history, its baseline is **learning**. While learning, the range is held wider, and a larger change is needed before an alert fires. Monitors and alerts show a _baseline still learning_ chip until then. After six weeks the baseline is **solid** and the range tightens by itself.

## When an alert fires {#fired}

Fired alerts appear on the **Fired** tab, under **Needs a look** or **Resolved itself**. Open one to see:

- **Actual vs Expected range**: the metric drawn against its band.
- **What changed**: tables of where the gap is concentrated, by segment, with expected, actual, gap and share of the drop, plus links to the events, funnel or segment. This is a filtered count against the same-weekday baseline, with no model. It shows where the drop is, not why.
- The timeline, and this monitor’s sensitivity and baseline.

**Acknowledge** tells your team someone is on it. Monitoring stays open. An alert closes itself, as _Resolved itself_, when the metric comes back inside its range. Emails go out when it fires and when it resolves.

## Watching, muting and email {#manage}

- The **Watching** tab lists every monitor with its status: _Nothing unusual_, _Outside its range_ or _Not checked yet_.
- **Mute monitor** pauses checks. **Resume monitor** starts them again. Muted monitors live on the **Muted** tab.
- To change sensitivity, open an alert and use **Adjust sensitivity**. The next check uses the new range.
- The mail button on a monitor opens **Alert emails**: pick recipients and **Save recipients**, or **Stop emailing me**. Anyone who turned off operational email in their notification settings is skipped.
- Search and sort the list by **Most recent** or **Name A–Z**.

> **Alert emails are part of the Pro plan**
>
> In-app alerts work on every plan. Emailing them is part of Pro. See [pricing](https://clickclacks.io/pricing).

## Tips and gotchas {#tips}

- **Start with Big changes only.** A quiet alert you trust beats a noisy one you ignore.
- **“All quiet” doesn’t mean nothing happened.** It means nothing left its usual range for that weekday.
- **Agencies** see every project’s alerts in one inbox. See [Agencies](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/agencies.md#alerts).

## Recipes {#recipes}

### Tell me when sign-up conversion drops.

1. Save a sign-up [funnel](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/funnels.md) if you haven’t yet.
2. Click **New alert** and choose **Saved funnel · Sign-up conversion**.
3. Keep **Big changes only**, tick **Email**, and click **Start watching**.

### Why did sign-ups drop on Tuesday?

1. Open the fired alert for Tuesday.
2. Read **What changed**: which segment holds most of the gap?
3. Follow its link to the events, then check [Friction](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/friction.md) for anything new that day.

If one source holds 90% of the drop, check that source’s health in [Sources](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/sources.md) before anything else.

### Warn me if the app stops sending events.

1. Click **New alert** and choose **Source volume · Events from** your app.
2. Pick **Moderate** and email the engineer on call.

## Related {#related}

- [Funnels](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/funnels.md): Save a funnel to watch it.
- [Agencies](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/agencies.md): The cross-project alerts inbox.
- [Weekly digest](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/weekly-digest.md): A Monday summary, alerts included.
- [Boards](https://clickclacks.io/docs/guides/boards.md): Watch a tile with Watch this….