Create your first alert rule

Welcome to the hands-on learning path that walks you through building a complete Grafana alert rule from scratch, one piece at a time.

In this path, you open and name a rule, build a Prometheus query, set the condition, organize the rule with a folder and labels, configure evaluation behavior, choose how it handles missing data, select a contact point, and save the rule.

Here’s what to expect

When you complete this path, you’ll be able to:

• Open the new alert rule page and give your rule a clear name
• Build a Prometheus query using the visual query builder
• Set a comparison operator and threshold for the alert condition
• Select a folder and add labels that control routing
• Configure the evaluation group and pending period
• Configure no-data and error handling
• Select a contact point and add a summary annotation
• Save and activate your alert rule

Before you begin

Before you build your alert rule, ensure you have:

• A Grafana Cloud account. To create one, refer to Grafana Cloud.
• Admin permissions to create and manage alert rules.

The path installs the QuickPizza tutorial data sources for you in the next milestone. This path uses grafanacloud-play-prom, and querying it does not count toward your Grafana Cloud usage.

Troubleshooting

If you get stuck, we’ve got your back! Where appropriate, troubleshooting information is just a click away.

More to explore

After you save your first rule, explore silences to suppress notifications during planned maintenance, and learn how to configure contact points and notification policies in depth.