check-alerts

name	check-alerts
description	Check currently firing Grafana alerts, analyze alert status, and investigate alert issues in the Kagenti platform

Check Alerts Skill

This skill helps you check and analyze Grafana alerts in the Kagenti platform.

When to Use

• User asks "what alerts are firing?"
• User wants to check alert status
• After platform changes or deployments
• During incident investigation
• When troubleshooting platform issues

What This Skill Does

1. List Firing Alerts: Show all currently active alerts
2. Alert Details: Display alert severity, component, and description
3. Alert History: Check recent alert state changes
4. Query Alert Rules: Verify alert configuration
5. Test Alert Queries: Validate PromQL queries

Examples

Check Firing Alerts

# Get all currently firing alerts from Grafana
kubectl exec -n observability deployment/grafana -- \
  curl -s 'http://localhost:3000/api/alertmanager/grafana/api/v2/alerts' \
  -u admin:admin123 | python3 -c "
import sys, json
alerts = json.load(sys.stdin)
firing = [a for a in alerts if a.get('status', {}).get('state') == 'active']
print(f'Firing alerts: {len(firing)}')
for alert in firing:
    labels = alert.get('labels', {})
    annotations = alert.get('annotations', {})
    print(f\"\\n• {labels.get('alertname')} ({labels.get('severity')})\")
    print(f\"  Component: {labels.get('component')}\")
    print(f\"  Description: {annotations.get('description', 'N/A')[:100]}...\")
"

List All Alert Rules

# Get all configured alert rules
kubectl exec -n observability deployment/grafana -- \
  curl -s 'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/provisioning/alert-rules' \
  -u admin:admin123 | python3 -c "
import sys, json
rules = json.load(sys.stdin)
print(f'Total alert rules: {len(rules)}')
for rule in rules:
    print(f\"  • {rule.get('title')} ({rule.get('labels', {}).get('severity')})\")
"

Check Specific Alert Configuration

# Get configuration for a specific alert
kubectl exec -n observability deployment/grafana -- \
  curl -s 'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/provisioning/alert-rules' \
  -u admin:admin123 | python3 -c "
import sys, json
rules = json.load(sys.stdin)
alert_uid = 'prometheus-down'  # Change this to the alert UID
rule = next((r for r in rules if r.get('uid') == alert_uid), None)
if rule:
    print(f\"Alert: {rule.get('title')}\")
    print(f\"Query: {rule.get('data', [{}])[0].get('model', {}).get('expr')}\")
    print(f\"noDataState: {rule.get('noDataState')}\")
    print(f\"execErrState: {rule.get('execErrState')}\")
"

Test Alert Query Against Prometheus

# Test an alert's PromQL query
QUERY='up{job="kubernetes-pods",app="prometheus"} == 0'

kubectl exec -n observability deployment/grafana -- \
  curl -s -G 'http://prometheus.observability.svc:9090/api/v1/query' \
  --data-urlencode "query=${QUERY}" | python3 -m json.tool

Check Alert Evaluation State

# Check why an alert is firing or not firing
kubectl exec -n observability deployment/grafana -- \
  curl -s 'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/eval/rules' \
  -u admin:admin123 | python3 -m json.tool

Alert Locations in Grafana UI

Access Grafana: https://grafana.localtest.me:9443 Credentials: admin / admin123

Navigation:

1. Alerting → Alert rules - View all configured alerts
2. Alerting → Alert list - See firing/pending alerts
3. Alerting → Silences - Manage alert silences
4. Alerting → Contact points - Check notification settings
5. Alerting → Notification policies - View routing rules

Common Alert Issues

False Positives

• Check noDataState configuration (should be OK for most alerts)
• Verify query matches actual resource type (Deployment vs StatefulSet)
• Test query returns correct results

Alert Not Firing When It Should

• Verify metric exists in Prometheus
• Check alert threshold is appropriate
• Verify for duration isn't too long
• Check noDataState isn't masking the issue

Alert Configuration Not Loading

• Restart Grafana: kubectl rollout restart deployment/grafana -n observability
• Check ConfigMap applied: kubectl get configmap grafana-alerting -n observability
• Verify no YAML syntax errors

Related Documentation

• Alert Runbooks
• Alert Testing Guide
• CLAUDE.md Alert Monitoring
• TODO_INCIDENTS.md - Current incident tracking

Runbooks by Alert

When an alert fires, consult its runbook:

• docs/runbooks/alerts/<alert-uid>.md

Example: If "Prometheus Down" alert fires → docs/runbooks/alerts/prometheus-down.md

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