Respond to incidents on a status page
Post a human explanation and attach a postmortem to an incident directly from the status-page editor, so visitors see what's happening instead of a raw label.
When a monitor on your status page goes down, an incident is opened automatically and shown to visitors. By default it carries a generic label (e.g. "Investigating a service disruption"). You can replace that with a human explanation — and attach a postmortem once it's resolved — without leaving the status-page editor.
Where to find it
- Open Status pages → Configure for the page.
- Scroll to the Incidents section (step 7).
It lists recent incidents affecting that page's monitors. An incident that still shows the generic label is flagged Needs explanation — that's your cue to add one.
Post a public update
- Click Post public update on the incident.
- Pick a phase — Investigating, Identified, Monitoring, or Resolved — and write a short, plain-language message.
- Submit. The update appears on the public status page immediately, as part of the incident's timeline that visitors can read.
Post as many updates as you need over the life of the incident; they build a timeline.
Posting an update does not send a subscriber email. Subscribers are emailed automatically when an incident is first detected and when it resolves (and when a maintenance window starts). The updates you post in between are shown on the status page for visitors to follow, but are not individually emailed.
Attach a postmortem
Once an incident is resolved, click Write postmortem. HowlOps drafts a starting structure (impact, timeline, root cause, remediation) that you edit. Set its visibility to Public to link it from the status page, or keep it internal.
A postmortem's visibility is one of three values:
- Public — a Postmortem published link shows on the status page and this panel; anyone can read it.
- Private — published at a shareable link but password-protected, so only people with the password can open it. Not linked from the status page.
- Draft — not published anywhere; visible only to your team via the incident page.
The friendlier default label means an un-explained incident never looks alarming — but a real, human update always reads better. The Needs explanation flag helps you catch the ones still on autopilot.
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