Data alerts

A data alert turns a scheduled refresh into a watch on one number. Without an alert, a schedule with a notification sends it after every run. With one, each run checks a value on the dashboard, and the notification goes out only when that value meets the condition you set — for example, when the orders count goes above 1,000, when revenue drops by 10% or more from the previous month, or when this week’s sign-ups look unusual. An alert belongs to one schedule. The schedule’s frequency is how often the condition is checked, and its notification — email recipients or a Slack channel — is who hears about it. The dashboard is still refreshed on every run, whether the alert fires or not.

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Creating a data alert

1. Open the scheduled refreshes sidebar of a published dashboard and click New scheduled refresh, or edit an existing schedule.
2. Click Add alert condition. An Alert condition card opens above the notification.
3. In Chart, pick the chart or KPI to watch. The list holds every chart and KPI widget on the published dashboard, including those inside grid, stack, and tabs containers. A chart that can’t carry an alert is listed but disabled; hover it to see why (see Which charts support which rule).
4. In Measure, pick the value to read. The chart’s first measure is selected for you. Measure and Condition stay disabled until you pick a chart.
5. Under Condition, choose the rule type and fill in its fields.
6. Click Add notification and choose email recipients or a Slack channel. An alert needs somewhere to send its notification, so Save stays disabled until it has one.
7. Click Save.

While something is missing, the dialog footer says what it is — for example, “Enter the value to compare with.” or “An alert needs a notification: add recipients or a Slack channel.” On a dashboard with no charts, the card reads “This dashboard has no charts to check.” and the footer reads “This dashboard has no charts to check. Remove the alert condition to save.” Click the card’s ✕ to save the schedule without an alert. You can also create an alert from the Scheduled refreshes tab of the Scheduled page. Its New scheduled refresh dialog shows the Add alert condition button from the start, disabled with “Select a dashboard to add an alert condition.” until you pick a Dashboard. After that, it works as it does in the sidebar.

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Rule types

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Threshold

The condition is met when the measure is above, is below, or is equal to the number you enter in Value. Is equal to compares exactly, so it suits whole-number measures such as counts.

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% change

The condition is met when the measure increases by ≥, decreases by ≥, or changes by ≥ (in either direction) the percentage you enter, comparing the chart’s last complete period with the period before it. When the previous period’s value is 0 there is no percentage to compute, so the check can’t run and nothing is sent.

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Anomaly

The condition is met when the last complete period falls outside the normal range of the periods before it. The normal range is their median ± 3 × the median absolute deviation. If every earlier period has the same value, the range is that value alone, and any other value is outside it. The rule needs at least 8 complete periods before the latest one. Until the chart has them, the check can’t run and nothing is sent.

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Which charts support which rule

The dialog offers a chart and a rule type only where the chart has the value it reads, and says why when it doesn’t:

• A chart or KPI without a time dimension supports Threshold only. % change and Anomaly compare periods, so they are disabled, and the reason shows under the rule types.
• A chart split by a dimension besides its time dimension — a bar chart by category, or a line chart with one line per status — has no single value to check, so it is disabled in the Chart list. Its tooltip says why, for example ““Orders by month and status” is split by Status, so it has no single value to check. Pick a KPI or a chart without a breakdown.” A chart with several measures and no breakdown is fine: you pick one measure.
• A chart whose query Cube can’t read, such as a Python analysis or a chart built from SQL, is disabled in the Chart list too.

If the chart an alert already watches can no longer carry one — for example, it is now split by a dimension — Edit keeps that chart in Chart, disables every rule type, and shows the reason under them.

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What an alert checks

The data the notification shows. The alert reads the chart with the schedule’s control values, and with the dashboard’s published default for every control the schedule leaves on Use default — the same data the notification’s screenshot shows. For example, if the dashboard’s Status filter defaults to completed orders and the schedule sets it to Clear, the alert reads the orders of every status. The dialog, every alert email, and every Slack message say so: “Checked with the dashboard’s default filters and this schedule’s saved filters.” If you republish the dashboard or change a default, the next check uses the new version. The last complete period. On a chart with a time dimension, every rule reads the last complete period: the period still in progress, and any later periods the data holds, are skipped. A monthly chart checked on September 15 reads August. Periods follow the granularity the chart is drawn with, so a time granularity switcher that changes it changes the period the alert reads. On a chart without a time dimension, the alert reads its single value. The schedule creator’s access. The check runs once per run, with the data access of the person who created the schedule.

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When an alert notifies

An alert notifies when its condition starts to hold, and again only after it has stopped holding and then starts again. While the condition keeps holding, later runs send nothing, so a value that stays above its threshold for a week sends one notification, not seven. There is no notification when the condition stops holding. A notification that reaches no one — for example, when the only recipient is a group with no members — doesn’t count as sent: the next run that finds the condition met tries again. Run now checks against the same history as a scheduled run: pressing it twice while the condition holds notifies once. The alert starts fresh — as if its condition had never held, with its card back to “Last check: not run yet” — when you turn the schedule off, edit the alert’s condition, or change the schedule’s control values: the next check notifies if the condition holds on what it now reads. Changing only the schedule’s time keeps the history. A check that can’t run leaves the history as it was. A run whose alert does not fire is a plain refresh: no screenshot is generated, no AI summary is written, and nothing is sent.

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The notification

A fired alert sends the schedule’s usual notification — the dashboard link and screenshot, and the AI summary if it is turned on — led by what the alert found:

• Email — the subject is Alert: <chart> on <dashboard>. The message names the condition, the chart, and the value read: the period it read, plus the previous period and the change for % change, or the normal range for Anomaly.
• Slack — the message opens with the same Alert: <chart> on <dashboard> line, followed by what the alert read, for example “Count increased by 2.5% from 157 in 2026-08 to 161 in 2026-09 (alert at 1% or more).”

Both state that the check used the dashboard’s default filters and the schedule’s saved filters, and that you will be notified again only after the condition stops holding.

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Following an alert in the sidebar

In the scheduled refreshes sidebar, a schedule with an alert carries an Alert badge and a summary of its rule, for example “Alert: Count is above 1,000 · Orders count”. The same summary appears in the Schedule column of the Scheduled refreshes tab. Below it, the card shows the last check. Before the first one it reads “Last check: not run yet”; afterwards it starts with “Last check” and the time of the check, followed by one of these: For % change, the line also names the previous period and the change, for example “Count 161 (2026-09). Previous: 157 (2026-08), +2.5%.” For Anomaly, it names the normal range, for example “Normal range: 8 – 14.” The values are shown only to the schedule’s creator. Anyone else who opens the sidebar sees whether the condition was met and whether a notification was sent, with “values not shown, as it ran with the access of the schedule’s creator.”

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When a check can’t run

A check that can’t run sends nothing and doesn’t change whether the alert counts as holding. The last-check line says why, for example:

• The chart is no longer on the dashboard, or the measure is no longer in its query.
• The chart is now split by a dimension.
• The chart returned no rows, or there is no complete period yet.
• An Anomaly rule has too few complete periods, or a % change rule’s previous period was 0.

When the chart or measure is gone, Edit shows the alert with the missing field flagged, for example “Count is no longer in “Orders by month”. Pick another measure.”

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Editing, duplicating, and deleting

Edit a schedule to change or remove its alert: click the ✕ (Remove alert condition) on the Alert condition card to make it a plain scheduled refresh again. Duplicating a schedule copies its alert, and deleting a schedule deletes its alert. If data alerts are turned off for your account, schedules keep their alerts but send nothing while they do. Editing such a schedule shows only the Alert condition switch; turn it off to remove the alert. When data alerts are turned back on, the alerts resume where they left off.