Policies have a tree structure, where each policy can have one or more nested policies. Each policy, except for the default policy, can also match specific alert labels.
If the **Continue matching subsequent sibling nodes** option is enabled for a nested policy, then evaluation continues even after one or more matches. A parent policy’s configuration settings and contact point information govern the behavior of an alert that does not match any of the nested policies. A default policy governs any alert that does not match a nested policy.
1. In **Group by**, choose labels to group alerts by. If multiple alerts are matched for this policy, then they are grouped by these labels. A notification is sent per group. If the field is empty (default), then all notifications are sent in a single group. Use a special label `...` to group alerts by all labels (which effectively disables grouping).
1. In **Timing options**, select from the following options:
- **Group wait** Time to wait to buffer alerts of the same group before sending an initial notification. Default is 30 seconds.
- **Group interval** Minimum time interval between two notifications for a group. Default is 5 minutes.
- **Repeat interval** Minimum time interval for re-sending a notification if no new alerts were added to the group. Default is 4 hours.
To create a new notification policy, you need to follow its tree structure. New policies created on the trunk of the tree (default policy), are the tree branches. And, subsequently, each branch can bear their own child policies. This is why you always add a new **nested** policy under either the default policy, or under a already nested policy.
3. From the **Choose Alertmanager** dropdown, select an Alertmanager. By default, the **Grafana Alertmanager** is selected.
4. To add a top level specific policy, go to the Specific routing section (either to the default policy, or to another existing policy in which you would like to add a new nested policy) and click **+New nested policy**.
5. In the Matching labels section, add one or more rules for matching alert labels.
6. In the **Contact point** dropdown, select the contact point to send notification to if alert matches only this specific policy and not any of the nested policies.
7. Optionally, enable **Continue matching subsequent sibling nodes** to continue matching sibling policies even after the alert matched the current policy. When this option is enabled, you can get more than one notification for one alert.
8. Optionally, enable **Override grouping** to specify the same grouping as the default policy. If this option is not enabled, the default policy grouping is used.
9. Optionally, enable **Override general timings** to override the timing options configured in the group notification policy.
To search by contact point simply select a contact point from the **Search by contact point** dropdown. The policies that use that contact point are highlighted in the user interface.
To search by label matchers simply enter a valid matcher in the **Search by matchers** input field. Multiple matchers can be combined with a comma (`,`).
- Edit the default policy grouping to group alerts by `cluster`, `namespace` and `severity` so that you get a notification per alert rule and specific Kubernetes cluster and namespace.
