---
title: "Create an escalation chain | Grafana Labs"
description: "Build a simple escalation chain that notifies a team and escalates if unacknowledged, then test it using direct paging."
---

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

# Create an escalation chain

In this milestone, you create a basic escalation chain as the next step of your alert flow.

Escalation chains define a sequence of notification steps for Alert groups: who gets notified, when they get notified, and what to do if an Alert group remains unacknowledged. A well-designed escalation chain ensures timely attention from the right people while avoiding unnecessary noise.

For this example, you configure the following escalation chain:

To create an escalation chain, complete the following steps:

1. In the IRM navigation menu, click **Escalation chains**.
2. Click **+ New escalation chain**.
3. In **Name**, enter a descriptive name (for example, `Production - Default`).
4. (Optional) Assign the chain to a team.
5. Click **Create Escalation Chain**.

Configure the first step (schedule placeholder):

1. Click **Add escalation step**.
2. Select **Notify users from on-call schedule**.
3. Set the notification method to **Default** or **Important**.
4. Leave **Select schedule** empty. You attach the schedule in a later milestone.

> Note
> 
> **Default vs. Important notifications:** When configuring escalation chains that notify users, decide whether to send notifications via their **Default** or **Important** notification rules.
> 
> This decision depends on factors such as the type of alerts routed to the escalation chain (critical and time-sensitive vs. warning) and team response expectations. Maintain a shared definition of which alerts warrant Important rules.
> 
> If you are not sure which to pick, set **Default** for now and update it later. You learn more about these rule sets in a later milestone.

Configure a wait and escalation step:

1. Click **Add escalation step** and select **Wait**.
2. Set **Wait time** to `5 minutes`.
3. Click **Add escalation step** and select **Notify all team members** (or another escalation action).
4. Select a broader team (for example, `Production SRE`).
5. Set the notification method to **Default** or **Important**.

Associate the escalation chain with the integration:

1. Click **Integrations**.
2. Open your Grafana Alerting integration.
3. Expand the **Default** route in **Routes**.
4. In **Trigger escalation chain**, select the chain (for example, `Production - Default`).

IRM now routes alerts from this integration to the specified escalation chain.

In the next milestone, you create an on-call schedule for automatic notification to the current responder.