# Silences

Alert silences let you suppress incident creation for a specific alert during a defined time window, preventing unnecessary on-call escalations when a known issue or planned activity is already being handled.

When a silence is active, matching alerts are received but not escalated. They remain recorded in the Alerts list, but no incident is opened and no notifications are sent until the silence expires.

### How silences work

1. **Create a silence** — Open the alert you want to suppress, click **Silence**, and set a description and end time. The silence activates immediately.
2. **Alerts are suppressed** — During the active window, any incoming alert with a matching fingerprint is logged but does not trigger an incident. On-call responders are not notified.
3. **Silence expires** — When the end time arrives, the silence becomes **Inactive**. Incident creation and escalation resume automatically for that alert fingerprint.

### Creating a silence

Navigate to **Monitoring → Alerts** and open the alert you want to silence. Click the **Silence** button in the top-right corner of the alert detail page.

Complete these fields:

| Field       | Description                                                                                                           |
| ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Description | Optional note explaining why the alert is being silenced (e.g., `scheduled disk cleanup`, `fix pending until Apr 11`) |
| Ends At     | Date and time when the silence expires and escalation resumes                                                         |

Click **Silence** to activate.

> **Note:** A silence is matched to incoming alerts by fingerprint — a unique hash of the alert name, host, and tags. Only alerts with an identical fingerprint are suppressed. Alerts from a different host or with different tags are not affected.

### Silence statuses

| Status   | Meaning                                                                                      |
| -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Active   | Silence is running. Matching alerts are suppressed and no incidents are created.             |
| Inactive | Silence has expired or was manually deactivated. Matching alerts trigger incidents normally. |

### Viewing and managing silences

Navigate to **Monitoring → Silences** to see all silences across your account.

Each row shows:

* **Fingerprint** — the alert fingerprint this silence matches
* **Description** — the note entered at creation
* **Status** — current state: Active or Inactive
* **Ends At** — scheduled expiry time
* **Created At** — when the silence was created

Use the **Search** field to filter by fingerprint or description. Use the **Status** filter to show only active or inactive silences.

Click any row to open the silence detail page. From there you can:

* **Edit** — update the description, tenant, or end time of an active silence without interrupting it
* **Deactivate** — end the silence immediately, before the scheduled expiry

> **Warning:** Clicking **Deactivate** ends the silence instantly. Any matching alert that arrives after deactivation will trigger an incident and notify on-call responders.

### Silences tab on the alert detail page

When viewing an alert, the **Silences** tab (next to Overview) lists all silences currently linked to that alert. Check this tab before creating a new silence to avoid duplicates.

### Alerts panel on the silence detail page

The right-side **Alerts** panel on a silence detail page lists every alert that was suppressed by that silence, along with each alert's status and creation time. If the silence has not matched any incoming alert yet, it shows **"No alerts found."**

### Best practices

* **Set the tightest window possible.** Overly long silences increase the risk of missing real incidents. Set **Ends At** to match the expected resolution time closely.
* **Write a clear description.** Include the reason and a reference if applicable (e.g., `JIRA-1234 - disk cleanup in progress`). This helps teammates understand active silences at a glance.
* **Deactivate early when the issue is resolved.** If the situation clears before the silence expires, deactivate it immediately so the alert resumes normal escalation.
* **Check the Silences tab before creating a new one.** If a silence already exists for an alert, avoid creating a duplicate.


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