---
title: "Contact points | Grafana Labs"
description: "How a contact point tells Grafana where to send notifications, and what the default message contains."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## Contact points

A **contact point** tells Grafana where to send notifications. Each contact point connects to one or more integrations that deliver the message. In this journey, you select a contact point on the alert rule during creation (the default notification mode).

[Diagram showing a contact point connecting to three integration types: messaging, incident management, and automation](contact-point-types.svg "Diagram showing a contact point connecting to three integration types: messaging, incident management, and automation")

## What notifications contain

The **default** notification message draws mainly on the **alert name**, **status** (firing or resolved), and **labels** so responders get context in the channel:

- Which rule changed
- What state it is in
- Which dimensions the labels describe

You can add custom notification templates later, but that name, status, and label set still carry most of the first-line explanation. A readable rule name and useful labels still matter.