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On-Call Settings

The On-Call Settings page is the central configuration hub for your on-call program. Manage On-Call Settings in the web app at Operate > On-Call > Settings. 

Each tab configures one part of your program, listed in the order that they should be configured: Schedules, Policies, Teams, Services, People, Templates, Integrations, and Routing.

Setup Wizard

Rather than manually configuring your On-Call settings, use the Setup Wizard at the top of the page to generate an on-call configuration using Biggy.

Work in order

Each part of your configuration builds on the previous section. We recommend configuring each tab in the order that they appear on the page. Working in this order means every step has the responders, teams, and policies it needs to reference.

Key features

  •  Setup Wizard that generates a complete on-call configuration from a plain-language description of your team.

  •  Schedules with rotations, multiple shifts for follow-the-sun coverage, and temporary overrides.

  •  Escalation policies that define who is paged, in what order, and how long to wait before escalating.

  •  Services that connect your infrastructure to on-call routing.

  •  People management for per-responder contact methods, paging consent, and notification rules.

  •  Notification templates for reusable, multi-channel paging messages, with optional AI drafting.

  •  Routing that decides which escalation path an alert follows, by service, payload field, or BigPanda environment.

Before you begin

BigPanda On-Call is only available to organizations with Escalations enabled. If you do not see On-Call in the sidebar, contact your BigPanda representative.

To configure anything on the Settings page, you need a role with edit access to On-Call settings. Team managers can be granted scoped edit access to a single team without organization-wide admin rights.

Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard walks you through three quick steps to generate a complete on-call configuration for you, including schedules, policies, routing rules, and templates. Use it to create a working configuration, then refine it manually as needed.

On the right-hand side of the Setup Wizard banner, click Create with wizard. The wizard guides you through three steps:

  1. Configure: Define the escalation structure. Enter a Team name, select the Responders to include, add the Service IDs the team owns, choose the Notification channels, and set the Timezone, Rotation cadence, and the date and time the rotation starts. Select at least one responder to continue.

  2. Describe: Tell the wizard, in plain language, who your responders are and how you want to be paged.

  3. Review: Review the generated teams, schedules, policies, routing, and templates, then apply them.

Schedules

The Schedules tab manages on-call schedules with rotations and overrides. The list shows each schedule's rotation cadence, timezone, status, and who is currently on call. Use the search field to find a schedule, or click New schedule to create one.

Create a schedule

  1. On the Schedules tab, click New schedule.

  2. In the Create Schedule page, enter a Schedule name.

  3. Select a Timezone. All shift windows and handoff times use this timezone.

  4. (Optional), select an Owning team. Team managers of the owning team can edit this schedule and its shifts.

  5. Configure the shift. Each schedule has one or more shifts. Add multiple shifts for full coverage or overlapping time windows. For each shift, configure the following:

    •  Shift name: Optional label for the shift, for example Day Shift, US Hours.

    •  People rotate every: How often on-call responsibility moves to the next participant, for example weekly.

    •  Active during: Choose when the shift pages.

      •  All hours (24/7): The shift is always active, and participants rotate around the clock.

      •  Specific window: The shift only pages within the hours you set with From and To. Outside that window, the next shift in the schedule takes over.

    •  First handoff: The date and time the first person takes over. Subsequent handoffs follow the rotation interval above.

    •  Participants: Add the users or teams that rotate through the shift. Use the User and Team toggle to choose which to add, then select each participant.

    To add another shift, click Add shift. To see who is on call based on your current settings, expand Coverage preview.

  6. Add an Override. Overrides temporarily replace a shift for vacations, sick days, or coverage swaps. In the Overrides section of a schedule, you can add an override in two ways:

    • Describe an override: Enter the change in plain language, for example, Cover Priya from Feb 12 9am to Feb 14 6pm, then click Generate.

    • Add override manually: Click Add override manually, then set the Start, End, and Replacement. The start and end must be valid dates and times, and the replacement must be a valid responder.

  7. Click Create.

Coverage updates automatically

BigPanda On-Call continuously computes coverage, so every screen shows who is on call now, upcoming shifts, and the next handoff.

Escalation policies

Manage who gets notified, when to escalate, and how paging is delivered on the Policies tab. The escalation policy list shows each policy's number of steps, recipients, first-step timing, and readiness. 

Catch coverage gaps

The readiness indicators on the Policies and People tabs flag responders who are missing a phone number or the permissions a channel requires, so you can fix gaps before an incident happens.

Use the search field to find a policy, or click New policy to create one.

Create an escalation policy

  1. On the Policies tab, click New policy.

  2. In the Create Escalation Policy page, enter a Policy name. 

  3. (Optional) In the Policy Defaults section, configure a fallback paging template and channels to use when a step overrides responders' personal notification rules. 

  4. In the  Repeat section, turn on Repeat all steps if no one acknowledges to restart the escalation chain from the first step after all steps are exhausted without an acknowledgment. If enabled, select a Wait Interval in Minutes, and the Repeat Count.

  5. In the Steps section, configure the policy's ordered steps. If no one acknowledges at any step, the next step is triggered. Click Add step to add a step, or drag the handle to reorder steps. For each step, configure the following:

    •  Wait for (minutes): How long to hold the page after the engagement starts before this step notifies its recipients.

    •  Notify: Who this step pages. Recipients can be the on-call person from a schedule, all schedule participants, specific people, the on-call person from a team, all team members, or everyone the policy can reach.

    •  Schedule: When you notify the on-call person from a schedule, select which schedule to use. The schedule's timezone is shown alongside it.

    •  Override contact methods: When off, each responder is paged according to their own notification profile. When on, the step uses the policy's default channels. Responders without notification rules receive the default channels: SMS, WhatsApp, email, Slack, Teams, and voice.

    •  Notification template: (Optional) Select a message template for this step's pages.

Policy summary

As you update the escalation policy, the Policy Summary at the top previews the escalation chain that responders will experience.

Teams

The Teams tab manages responders and default escalation policy for each team. The list shows each team's member count, default policy, and readiness. Use the search field to find a team, or click New team to create one.

Create a team

  1. On the Teams tab, click New team.

  2. In the Create Team page, enter a Team name.

  3. (Optional), enter a Description of what the team owns or responds to.

  4. (Optional), select a Default escalation policy for the team.

  5. (Optional) In the Channel notifications section, choose where escalation activity is posted. Select the channel(s), then choose which updates to send: Page sent, Acknowledged, Escalated, and Resolved.

  6. In the Members section, select the responders who are part of the team. Add at least one responder.

  7. In the Team Managers section, promote a member to a team manager to delegate management of this team without granting organization-wide edit access. You can grant all permissions or pick exactly what each manager can do. Add members before you assign managers.

  8. Click Create Team.

Services

The Services tab defines the services in your infrastructure and connects them to on-call routing. The list shows each service's external ID, status, tier, and tags. Use the search field to find a service, or click New service to create one.

Add a service

  1. On the Services tab, click New service.

  2. In the Create Service panel, enter a Service name.

  3. (Optional) Enter a Description to help responders understand what the service represents.

  4. Enter an External ID. This is the identifier your monitoring tools use to route alerts to this service, for example svc-prod-payments.

  5. In the Classification section, configure the following fields:

    •  Status: Set the service to Active so it can receive routed alerts.

    •  Tier: (Optional) Assign a tier, for example P1.

    •  Tags: Type a tag and press Enter or comma to add it. Press Backspace to remove the last tag in the list.

  6. Click Create Service.

People

The People tab shows the on-call contact and notification settings for everyone in your organization. All organization members appear here automatically. 

For each responder, you can configure phone numbers, paging consent, and notification rules. The list shows each person's email, phone, and readiness. Readiness is expressed as the number of channels ready, for example 2/5 ready.

Responders can also manage their own contact methods and notification rules from My On-Call.

Edit contact details

Contact details are used when BigPanda On-Call delivers pages through SMS, WhatsApp, voice calls, email, Slack, or Teams.

To edit contact details, find the associated responder in the list and click Edit. Click the Contact Methods tab to view and manage details.

For each phone number:

  • (Optional) Add a label, for example Work cell.

  • Use the paging toggle to turn paging on or off for that number.

  • Select the country and enter the number.

  • Set the phone paging consent switches:

    •  SMS pages: Text pages with reply-to-acknowledge.

    •  WhatsApp pages: WhatsApp messages with tap-to-acknowledge buttons.

    •  Voice pages: Automated calls with press-1-to-acknowledge.

For each email address, add an optional label and use the paging toggle to turn paging on or off. Click Add phone or Add email to add more contact methods, then click Save.

Channel consent

A responder is only paged on channels they have configured. SMS is available by default unless it is turned off, while WhatsApp and voice require the responder to explicitly opt in.

Set notification rules

The Notification Rules tab in the Edit contact details panel  controls how a responder is notified for each event. You can configure rules for these events:

  • New Page: The initial page. New Page rules run in order of their configured delay, shortest first. The sequence repeats until the page is acknowledged.

  • Acknowledged, Escalated, and Resolved: Status updates that send once with no delay.

If no New Page rule is set, default paging is on so the responder is still reachable.

Notification templates

The content of paging messages is defined in the Templates tab. Write paging message templates, or let BigPanda On-Call generate them. The list shows each template and the channels it is active on. Use the search field to find a template, or click New template to create one.

Create a message template

  1. On the Templates tab, click New template.

  2. In the Create Message Template page, enter a Template name.

  3. (Optional) Add a Notification title. This will be the heading shown in Slack and Teams messages.

  4. (Optional) Add an Email subject, used only when email is an active channel.

  5. Under Channels, turn on each channel the template should be active for: Slack, Teams, SMS, WhatsApp, and Email. When a policy step uses this template, it only fires on the template's active channels.

  6. Write the Message body. Write it manually, or click Generate with AI and describe what you want. Insert values from the incoming alert with a dotted path, for example {{ incident.id }}. Unknown paths and non-webhook pages render empty, so keep the static text meaningful on its own.

  7. Click Create Template.

Generate a message

To generate a message body, open a template and use Generation Mode. Describe the incident, channel, and key details you want included.

For example: a short Slack page for a database latency incident that includes the service, severity, and a link placeholder.

Integrations

Manage inbound endpoints and routing policies for alert sources on the Integrations tab. Each alert source sends  alerts to BigPanda through a secured webhook endpoint, and the Routing list decides which escalation policies that integration pages. The list shows each integration's source, routing rules, and deduplication field. Use the search field to find an integration, or click Add integration to create one.

Add an integration

Adding an integration takes three steps: pick the alert source, create its inbound endpoint, and route its alerts to the appropriate escalation policies.

  1. On the Integrations tab, click Add integration.

  2. Under Source, pick your alert source: BigPanda, Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic, Splunk, SolarWinds, or Custom. Choose Custom for any alert source that can POST JSON to a URL.

  3. Under Endpoint, configure the connection:

    •  Integration name: Used as the incident title and for attribution of pages from this source.

    •  Deduplication field: Optional. Repeated deliveries with the same value at this payload field collapse into one incident, for example incident.id.

    •  Map priority from the payload: Turn this on to map the source's values to your organization's priority tiers. Enter the Priority field as a dotted path into the payload. To read a value out of a tag array, add a matcher segment, for example incidentTags[id=itd_priority_1].value. Then map each source value to a priority, and set the priority to use When the value is missing or unmapped.

    • Click Create endpoint.

  4. Copy the generated webhook URL and authorization token into your source's outbound webhook settings.

  5. Under Routing, create rules that send these alerts to the right escalation policy.

Save the token

The authorization token is shown only once when you create the endpoint. Copy it into your source's outbound webhook settings before you leave the page.

Routing

The Routing tab determines who is paged. 

Each route matches an alert by integration, by any payload field, or by BigPanda environment, and targets an escalation policy with optional channel notifications and a bridge. The list shows each route's type, what it matches, the policies it pages, its notifications, and its bridge. 

Use the search field and the routing-type filter to narrow the list, or click New routing to create an entry.

Add a routing rule

  1. On the Routing tab, click New routing.

  2. Choose a Routing type:

    •  Service: Pages targeted at a service. Select the service to match.

    •  Payload Field: Matches inbound integration deliveries on any payload field. Choose which integrations the rule Applies to . The rule can apply to all integrations, or be scoped to a single integration. Add an optional Rule name, enter the Payload field as a dotted path, and add the Matching values. A delivery matches when the payload field exactly matches any of these values.

    •  BigPanda Environment: Routes BigPanda incidents by environment. Select the environments to match.

  3. Under Who to page, click Add responder to add one or more rows. For each row, choose a Page a policy and select the Escalation policy. Set When the row applies, either Always or within a specific window.

  4. (Optional) Expand Channel notifications and add a Bridge URL, a Join URL, and a Dial-in number for the incident call.

  5. Click Add routing.

Always keep one path on

Every open row pages separately and requires its own acknowledgment. All rows group under the same incident. At least one row must page at all times, so a page that arrives outside every window still reaches someone. Set a fallback path or an always-on row so a routing entry will always page someone.

Troubleshooting

Symptom

Likely cause

Solution

A responder was not paged.

The responder is missing a phone number, has SMS turned off, or has not opted in to WhatsApp or voice.

Check the readiness warnings on the People and Policies screens, confirm the person is on the active schedule and step, and confirm their notification rules include a usable channel.

An SMS reply did not acknowledge the page.

Two-way SMS reply is only available in supported countries.

Use the web acknowledge link included in the same message.

No one is currently on call.

A business-hours-only schedule can leave gaps in coverage.

Add an always-on rotation, or set a fallback escalation policy on the routing entry.

An alert is not paging anyone.

The integration webhook is not delivering, or no routing rule matches.

Confirm the integration is delivering, confirm a routing rule matches, and set a fallback escalation policy to catch unmatched alerts.

A page reached the wrong people.

The escalation path resolves to unexpected recipients.

Use the policy's simulation preview and the send-time recipient preview to see exactly who a path resolves to before it matters.

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