Snoozing and disabling automated test alerts
Every automated test alert in TestNod is in one of three states: active, snoozed, or inactive. The state controls whether the check runs against new test runs and whether email notifications go out when it trips. This page covers what each state does, who can change it, and when each one is the right call.
Active state
The check runs against new test runs as they finish processing. When the check trips, TestNod records an alert event and sends an email to the project members who are subscribed to that alert type. Notifications follow the 24-hour cooldown described below.
Active is the starting state once an admin enables the alert type from the project settings page. See Configuring alerts for the configuration walkthrough.
Snoozed state
The check still runs, and events are still recorded against the alert. What snooze suppresses is the email notification. When the snooze expires, the alert returns to active and notifications resume.
Snooze durations available from the alert detail page:
- 1 hour
- 4 hours
- 24 hours
- 1 week
There is no indefinite snooze. If you want to silence an alert without a fixed end date, disable it instead.
Inactive state
The check does not run against new test runs while the alert is inactive. No events are recorded and no notifications are sent. Re-enabling the alert resumes checking with the next test run. Disabling does not delete the alert's existing event history.
Inactive is reached by an admin toggling the Active switch off on either the alert detail page or the project's alert configuration page.
Notification cooldown
Independent of state, every alert has a 24-hour notification cooldown. After a notification fires, the next notification for the same alert is delayed at least 24 hours, even if the check keeps recording events in that window. The cooldown applies per alert (not per event), so a noisy alert produces at most one email per 24 hours.
Who can snooze or disable alerts
| Action | Members | Admins |
|---|---|---|
| Snooze or unsnooze an alert | ✅ | ✅ |
| Enable or disable an alert | ❌ | ✅ |
Members can snooze or unsnooze any alert in the organization from the alert detail page. Toggling the active state requires an admin role.
When to snooze vs. disable an alert
| Action | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Snooze for 1 hour | A fix is in progress and notifications would be noise until it lands. |
| Snooze for 4 or 24 hours | The cause is known, the fix is scheduled, and notifications can wait until then. |
| Snooze for 1 week | The alert is on the backlog for the next planning cycle. |
| Disable the alert | The alert type is not relevant for this project, or the underlying issue is accepted and won't be fixed. See Configuring alerts. |
Examples:
- A flaky test that someone is actively debugging is a good fit for a 1-hour snooze.
- A skipped-test creep alert that the team has decided not to act on is a good fit for disabling.
Event history
Snoozing and disabling do not delete past events. The alert's event timeline keeps every event that was recorded while the alert was active or snoozed, and continues to record new events whenever the check is active (snoozed or not). Disabling stops new events from being recorded but leaves the existing history intact.