---
title: "Manage Channels"
slug: "manage-channels"
updated: 2025-09-30T10:59:14Z
published: 2025-10-14T06:20:48Z
canonical: "support.el-watch.com/manage-channels"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.el-watch.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Manage Channels

## Notification Channels

Notification channels are the delivery mechanisms for alerts and messages. They provide a structured way to route notifications to different destinations, such as external services, internal APIs, or groups of users. This document outlines the available notification channels and how to configure them.

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## Types of Notification Channels

### 1. Email

Sends a email to a system user

### 2. SMS

Sends a SMS to a user with phone number

### 3. Webhook

The **Webhook** channel sends notifications to a specified URL via an HTTP POST request. This is a highly flexible channel that can be used to integrate with a wide range of third-party services, such as messaging platforms (Slack, Discord), incident management systems (PagerDuty, Opsgenie), or customer applications.

**Configuration Parameters:**

- `url`: The HTTP or HTTPS endpoint to which the notification will be sent.
- `headers` (optional): A map of key-value pairs to be included in the request headers. This is useful for authentication tokens or custom headers required by the receiving service.
- `body` (optional): Additional content of the request body. If not specified, a default payload will be used.

### 4. Actuator

The **Actuator** channel is a channel designed to trigger a [Neuron Actuator](/v1/docs/actuator). It functions as a relay trigger with two distinct modes: a `switch` mode and a `timer` mode. This channel is distinct from `Webhook` as it's intended for system device communication rather than external integration.

**Configuration Parameters:**

- `mode`: Specifies the operational mode of the trigger.
  - `switch`: Sets the relay's state (on/off).
  - `timer`: Turns the relay on for a specified duration.
- `duration` (required for `timer` mode): The length of time, for which the relay will remain on.

### 5. Group

The **Group** channel is a composite channel that bundles multiple other notification channels together. When a notification is sent to a `Group` channel, it is forwarded to all the channels listed within that group. Groups can include all Channel types.

Duplicates will be removed before sending.

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## Creating and Managing Channels

Channels are defined and managed through the system's configuration. Each channel is assigned a unique identifier, which can then be referenced in rules or alert definitions to specify where notifications should be sent.