New Relic alert conditions: course index

New Relic alert conditions

Learn how conditions decide that something is wrong. Then judge the ones Shippo runs.

Primary objective: the concepts of setting alert conditions. Signals, windows, thresholds, durations, gaps, baselines. Platform knowledge that transfers anywhere.

Secondary objective: applying those concepts to Shippo's live configuration. Every worked example is a real condition and every number comes from a live query, but Shippo is the illustration, not the subject.

Core track: the concepts

#	Lesson	The concept it teaches
1	The four blocks of a condition	Where a condition sits in the chain from signal to notification, and the four blocks it is made of.
2	Thresholds under diurnal volume	Why a count threshold is two different alerts at two different hours, and how a guarded ratio fixes it.
3	Gaps, fills, and signal loss	Absence is not zero. Deciding what silence means, and the two settings that act on it.
4	Terms, durations, and paired conditions	A term is a complete rule. One signal needs as many conditions as it needs distinct responses.

Lesson

The concept it teaches

The four blocks of a condition

Where a condition sits in the chain from signal to notification, and the four blocks it is made of.

Thresholds under diurnal volume

Why a count threshold is two different alerts at two different hours, and how a guarded ratio fixes it.

Gaps, fills, and signal loss

Absence is not zero. Deciding what silence means, and the two settings that act on it.

Terms, durations, and paired conditions

A term is a complete rule. One signal needs as many conditions as it needs distinct responses.

Extension track: capabilities Shippo does not use

#	Lesson	The concept it teaches
5	Baseline conditions and seasonality	Comparing against a learned prediction instead of a chosen number, and when that is the wrong trade.
6	The windowing knobs left at default	Sliding windows, window-completion methods, and the two delays. How New Relic cuts time.

Lesson

The concept it teaches

Baseline conditions and seasonality

Comparing against a learned prediction instead of a chosen number, and when that is the wrong trade.

The windowing knobs left at default

Sliding windows, window-completion methods, and the two delays. How New Relic cuts time.

Applied track: the policy you own

#	Lesson	What it does
7	Auditing the policy you own	Runs the concepts against Carrier Capabilities (CCAP) and reports what it finds. Half the policy is disabled, 19 of 98 conditions can page, and a measured bug survived a careful rewrite.

Lesson

What it does

Auditing the policy you own

Runs the concepts against Carrier Capabilities (CCAP) and reports what it finds. Half the policy is disabled, 19 of 98 conditions can page, and a measured bug survived a careful rewrite.

Workspace

Open finding

The FedEx rating 5xx conditions miss status_code = '5XX'. All three of [CCAP] FedEx REST Rating - 5xx errors (carrier upstream), [CCAP] FedEx REST Rating - 5xx burst (Shippo origin), and [CCAP] FedEx REST Rating - 5xx errors (Shippo origin) still filter on status_code >= 500. Re-checked 2026-08-20: 1,393 FedEx rating failures a day land inside their filters and count as zero. The conditions were rewritten on 20 August and the bug came through the rewrite intact. Not ticketed.

Standing rules for this course

The concept comes first. A lesson never opens with repository mechanics.

Every number comes from a live query or a primary source, taken at authoring time.

Account-wide counts are over the 1000-condition sample the API returns, which is its cap. Last re-pulled 2026-08-20.

Live configuration is the only authority. Code and wiki pages both drift from it, so re-query before citing a threshold.

Test a comparison inside one query. Two queries cover two time windows.

`MISSION.md`	Objectives in priority order. Every lesson is scored against it.
`RESOURCES.md`	Vendor documentation first, Shippo source as reference.
`NOTES.md`	Teaching preferences and working notes.
`learning-records/`	Non-obvious conclusions that drive future lessons.
`docs/`	Findings that outgrew a lesson and need action.
`assets/`	Shared stylesheet and quiz component.