CT-Ops
Notification Delivery Settings
Global CT-Ops settings for in-app alert notifications and SMTP relay delivery.
Notification delivery settings control alert notification behaviour that is shared across the CT-Ops instance. They affect the notification bell, eligible recipient roles, user opt-out behaviour, and the central SMTP relay used by email notification channels on Checks & Alerts.
Open in-app notification settings from Settings -> Monitoring ->
Notifications at /settings/monitoring/notifications. Open SMTP relay
settings from Settings -> Integrations -> SMTP relay at
/settings/integrations/smtp.
Access and scope
Only instance administrators can change these settings. Non-admin users can see the effective notification settings where the settings page exposes read-only state, but cannot save changes.
Settings apply to the current CT-Ops instance. Notification channels on the Alerts page are also instance-scoped.
In-app notifications
The Notification Settings card controls whether alert events create notification-bell entries and which roles receive them.
| Field or control | Default | Validation | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable In-App Notifications | Enabled | Boolean switch | When enabled, alert fired and resolved events can create in-app notifications for eligible users. When disabled, external channels can still receive alert events, but the notification bell does not receive alert entries from this path. |
| Roles that receive notifications | Administrator and operator roles by instance defaults | Must be selected from supported CT-Ops roles | Limits in-app alert notifications to users with selected roles. |
| Allow users to opt out | Enabled | Boolean switch | When enabled, individual users can turn off their own in-app notifications in their profile. When disabled, selected roles receive in-app alert notifications regardless of profile opt-out. |
| Save | Disabled until local changes exist | Requires administrator access | Persists the notification settings. The button shows Saving… while the request is in flight. |
| Saved | Hidden | Appears after a successful save | Confirms CT-Ops stored the settings. |
Use these settings to keep in-app notifications targeted. If too many users receive every alert, reduce the role list. If alert visibility is too narrow, add the operational roles that should see alert-bell entries during a shift.
The CT-Ops Notifications page includes a trend chart for critical and warning in-app notifications. Daily trend ranges keep one bucket for every day in the selected period, including days with zero notifications, so quiet days appear as dips instead of being skipped.
SMTP relay
The SMTP Relay card controls central email delivery for email notification channels. Email channels created on Checks & Alerts store recipient addresses only; they cannot deliver mail unless this relay is enabled and working.
| Field or control | Default | Validation | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable SMTP relay | Disabled until configured | Boolean switch | Enables or disables central email delivery for alert email channels. |
| Host | Empty | Required when enabled; CT-Ops rejects private/internal SMTP hosts for test and send paths | SMTP server hostname. |
| Port | Based on encryption mode | Number | SMTP server port. Changing encryption updates the port to the default for that mode. |
| Encryption | StartTLS | Supported values are None, StartTLS, and TLS | Chooses the SMTP transport security mode. |
| Username | Empty | Optional | SMTP authentication username. |
| Password | Empty | Optional; leave blank on edit to keep an existing stored password | SMTP authentication password. Stored passwords are encrypted and are not displayed after save. |
| From address | Empty | Required when enabled and must be an email address | Sender address used by alert email. |
| From name | CT-Ops Alerts style operator label when configured | Optional | Display name used with the sender address. |
| Save | Disabled until local changes exist | Requires administrator access and settings validation | Persists relay settings. |
| Test | Disabled while unsaved changes exist or the stored relay is disabled | Requires administrator access | Opens the SMTP test dialog. |
Encryption modes set these default ports:
| Encryption | Default port |
|---|---|
| None | 25 |
| StartTLS | 587 |
| TLS | 465 |
Use Test after saving SMTP changes. The dialog asks for a recipient email address, sends a test message through the stored relay, and then shows success, an error, and any SMTP log entries returned by the test flow. A failed test means alert email channels are unlikely to deliver until the relay settings are fixed.
Alerts page effects
These global settings affect the Alerts page in specific ways:
| Alerts page area | Effect |
|---|---|
| Email notification channels | Use the central SMTP relay for delivery. If the relay is disabled, channel tests fail with a relay-disabled error and real email alerts cannot be sent through SMTP. |
| Notification channel tests | Webhook, Slack, Telegram, and SMTP tests use stored channel settings. SMTP tests also require the stored global relay. |
| In-app notifications | Alert fired and resolved events create notification-bell entries only when in-app notifications are enabled and the user role/opt-out settings allow delivery. |
External webhook, Slack, and Telegram channels are configured directly on the Alerts page. Their stored outbound URLs are still checked to avoid private or internal targets.
Operator guidance
Configure in-app notifications first so the right CT-Ops users see alert activity even before external channels are ready. Then configure and test the SMTP relay before adding email channels.
For production, use a service mailbox as the From address, keep credentials rotated, and retest after any mail infrastructure change. For sensitive environments, prefer role-based in-app delivery plus narrowly scoped external channels so alert data is not sent to unnecessary destinations.