# SLA Alerts

Set automatic response-time deadlines on Stories with at-risk warnings and breach notifications.

An SLA (Service Level Agreement) defines how quickly a team commits to responding to or resolving work (for example, "P0 issues must be triaged within 1 hour").

With SLA Alerts enabled, Shortcut helps support and product teams maintain response-time commitments for high-priority or customer-impacting work.

## What SLA Alerts do

When SLA Alerts are enabled, Shortcut will:

* Automatically apply an SLA to qualifying Stories
* Display a clear time-based indicator on the Story
* Send a single warning before the SLA breaches
* Send a breach notification if the SLA is not satisfied
* Display "resolved" status on the Story once it satisfies the SLA (moved to the set workflow state)

## How SLA Alerts work

### Trigger

An SLA is triggered when a Story meets specific criteria set in Settings.

![](/help/assets/2026-03-10%2020.09.45.gif)

Once a Story is created and meets the criteria (e.g. Severity = Sev 0):

* The SLA countdown begins immediately
* The Story displays an active SLA indicator on the card and in Kanban/Table view on the Stories page

### Satisfying the SLA

An SLA is satisfied when the Story moves into the selected workflow state in Settings (for example, _Triaged_ or _Done_).

When satisfied:

* The SLA is marked as complete
* No breach notification is sent

### Warning (At-Risk) & Breach Notifications
Shortcut will notify the Story owner via email and Slack, and notify a Slack channel if it is linked in Settings, when a Story is at risk or has breached the set SLA.

* **Warning** is sent when the Story has 50% of total time remaining from creation → SLA breach. _(If the SLA deadline is 1 hour, the warning is sent within the first 15 minutes of SLA start time — this allows enough response time between warning and breach.)_
* **Breach** is sent if the Story is not satisfied (moved to the determined workflow state) within the set time limit of the SLA