---
key: create-a-critical-alert-template
title: Write an alert template
audience: staff
section: critical-alerts
routes: ["/critical-alerts/templates", "/critical-alerts/templates/new"]
permissions: ["critical_alerts.templates.manage"]
features: ["critical_alerts.core"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Write the exact words a phone call speaks or a text, email or webhook sends, with placeholders for the incident's title and summary.
keywords: [message wording, spoken message, call script, text message, email body, placeholder, what the call says, alert text]
related: [create-a-critical-alert-rule, add-a-critical-alert-destination, publish-a-critical-alert-draft]
---

In the sidebar, open **Critical Alerts**, then **Setup**, then **Templates**. The page address is `/critical-alerts/templates`.

A template is the wording. A rule picks one for opening an incident and, optionally, another for the all-clear.

## Before you start

- Your admin has to give your role permission to manage critical alert templates.
- Decide the channel first. A voice template is read aloud on the call; a text, email or webhook template is sent as written.

## Steps

1. Press **New template**. The **Create template** drawer opens.
2. Type a **Name**. The **Key** fills in from it and cannot change later.
3. Choose the **Channel** the wording is for.
4. For a voice template, type the **Spoken message**. For every other channel, type the **Body template**. Put `{incident_title}` and `{incident_summary}` where the incident's own title and summary should appear.
5. For email, type a **Subject template**. On a voice template the same field is called **Internal subject** and is only for your own reference.
6. Press **Create template**. The template is saved as a draft.
7. On its row, press **Publish** so rules can use it.

> **Note:** Keep a spoken message short and plain. The call reads it exactly as written once the placeholders are filled in, and then plays the keypad prompt.

## What you see

- Each row shows the channel, the body text, the subject (or "No subject template"), and a version line.
- The **Filters** button narrows by **Channel** and **Status**.
- **Edit** reopens the drawer. **Version history** at the bottom lists earlier live versions with **Make live** on each.

## If something looks different

- The call says the placeholder name instead of the title: the braces or spelling in `{incident_title}` are wrong.
- The alert still uses the old wording after you edited the template: press **Publish** on the template's row.
- **New template** is missing: your role cannot manage templates.

[[route:/critical-alerts/templates|Open Templates]]