Better Stack On-Call

Better Stack On-Call Management

Overview

Better Stack Uptime includes integrated on-call scheduling that determines who gets paged when a monitor fails. Schedules define rotation patterns, and notification/escalation policies define how and when responders are alerted (via phone, SMS, email, or push). For MSPs, on-call is commonly configured per customer team, with separate schedules for each client's SLA requirements.

Anti-triggers

• Rotations that live in PagerDuty or Rootly — "who is on call", "escalation policy", and "paging" are shared vocabulary across all three products, and nothing in the phrasing disambiguates them. If the MSP's paging system is not Better Stack, use pagerduty-oncall or rootly-oncall.
• Technician shifts, dispatch, or booked appointments — an on-call rotation is not a service schedule; that lives in the PSA (autotask, halopsa, connectwise-psa).
• Changing what a monitor checks rather than who it wakes — use betterstack-monitors.

Key Concepts

Schedule Structure

Better Stack schedules define:

• Members - Responders in the rotation
• Rotation - Daily, weekly, or custom patterns
• Time zone - Critical for follow-the-sun setups
• Start date - When the rotation begins

Notification (Escalation) Policies

Policies define the alert cascade when a monitor goes down:

Better Stack calls these "notification policies" rather than "escalation policies", but they serve the same purpose.

Notification Methods

• Phone call - Voice call for critical alerts
• SMS - Text message notification
• Email - Email alert with incident details
• Push notification - Mobile app notification
• Slack/Teams - Integration-based notifications

Integration with Monitors

Monitors are linked to notification policies at creation time. When a monitor goes down:

1. Better Stack creates an incident
2. The monitor's notification policy fires
3. On-call responders are paged in sequence
4. If acknowledged, escalation stops
5. If not acknowledged within the timeout, the next tier is paged

API Patterns

List On-Call Schedules

list_on_call_schedules

Parameters:

• per_page - Results per page
• page[after] - Pagination cursor

Get On-Call Schedule

get_on_call_schedule

Parameters:

• id - The schedule ID

Key fields:

• attributes.name - Schedule name
• attributes.time_zone - Time zone (e.g., "America/New_York")
• attributes.current_shift - Current on-call user and shift end
• attributes.next_shift - Upcoming on-call user and shift start

Create On-Call Schedule

create_on_call_schedule

Parameters:

• name - Schedule name (required)
• time_zone - Time zone for the schedule

List Notification Policies

list_schedule_policies

Parameters:

• per_page - Results per page

Common Workflows

Find Who Is Currently On-Call

1. Call list_on_call_schedules to get all schedules
2. Call get_on_call_schedule for each relevant schedule
3. Check the current_shift field -- shows who is currently on-call and when their shift ends
4. For MSP use: filter schedules by team to find the on-call person for a specific customer account

Review Escalation Policy Coverage

1. Call list_schedule_policies to see all notification policies
2. For each policy, review the escalation steps:
   • Tier 1: who gets paged first and via what channels
   • Tier 2: escalation timeout and who is next
   • Tier 3: final escalation (manager, team-wide broadcast)
3. Verify no step has a deleted or empty schedule assignment

On-Call Handoff

Before transitioning between on-call shifts:

1. Call list_incidents with status=acknowledged to find any open, active incidents
2. For each open incident, call get_incident to get current status
3. Check the responsible monitor with get_monitor for the affected service
4. Brief the incoming responder on: what monitor is down, what was tried, current status
5. The incoming responder runs acknowledge_incident if they are taking ownership

Maintenance Window Coordination

During planned maintenance:

1. Use pause_monitor to prevent false pages during the window
2. Notify the on-call team via create_status_page_incident for customer-facing work
3. After maintenance, resume_monitor on all paused monitors
4. Verify no stale incidents remain open with list_incidents

Error Handling

Schedule Not Found

Cause: Invalid schedule ID or schedule was deleted Solution: List schedules to verify the correct ID

Invalid Schedule Configuration

Cause: Invalid time zone format or member IDs Solution: Verify time zone format and confirm member IDs exist

No On-Call User

Cause: Schedule has no on-call user for the current time Solution: Check schedule configuration and ensure rotations cover all time periods

Best Practices

• Use one schedule per customer team for clean MSP client mapping
• Set reasonable escalation timeouts: 5 minutes for Tier 1, 10 minutes for Tier 2
• Always have at least Tier 2 and Tier 3 -- single-tier policies cause missed incidents
• Review current_shift before major changes to confirm the right person is on-call
• Coordinate monitor pause/resume with on-call awareness to avoid false pages
• Test escalation policies monthly with synthetic incidents
• Document on-call handoff procedures for consistency
• Configure multiple notification methods for critical monitors

Related Skills

• api-patterns - Pagination and error handling
• monitors - Monitors that trigger on-call alerts
• incidents - Incidents routed through escalation
• status-pages - Status pages updated during incidents
• logging - Log investigation during incidents