Guide for adding notifications, custom renderers, or new providers to Sentry's NotificationPlatform. Use when asked to "add notification", "new notification", "notification platform", "send notification", "notification template", "notification renderer", "notification provider", "NotificationPlatform", "notify user", "send email notification", "send slack notification".
Sentry's NotificationPlatform is a provider-based system for sending notifications across Email, Slack, Discord, and MS Teams. You define data + template, register it, and the platform handles rendering and delivery per provider.
| Concept | Role | Location |
|---|---|---|
NotificationData | Protocol. Frozen dataclass carrying the payload for a single notification. Must declare a source class variable. | types.py |
NotificationTemplate | Abstract class. Converts NotificationData into a NotificationRenderedTemplate. Registered per NotificationSource. | types.py |
NotificationRenderedTemplate | Dataclass. Provider-agnostic output: subject, body blocks, actions, chart, footer, optional email paths. |
types.pyNotificationProvider | Protocol. Knows how to validate a target, pick a renderer, and send the final renderable (Email, Slack, etc.). | provider.py |
NotificationRenderer | Protocol. Converts a NotificationRenderedTemplate into a provider-specific renderable (HTML email, Slack blocks, etc.). | renderer.py |
NotificationTarget | Protocol. Identifies the recipient: email address, channel ID, or DM user ID. Two concrete classes: GenericNotificationTarget (email) and IntegrationNotificationTarget (Slack/Discord/MSTeams). | target.py |
NotificationService | Entry point. Orchestrates lookup, rendering, and delivery. Provides has_access(), notify_target(), notify_async(), notify_sync(). | service.py |
All paths below are relative to src/sentry/notifications/platform/.
| I want to... | Go to |
|---|---|
| Add a new notification (most common) | Steps 2-5 |
| Add a custom renderer for an existing provider | Step 6 |
| Add an entirely new provider | Step 7 |
After any operation, continue to Step 8 (Test) and Step 9 (Verify).
Every notification needs a unique NotificationSource enum value and must be mapped to a NotificationCategory. A NotificationSource should represent the domain or feature that a given notification belongs to.
For examples, load
src/sentry/notifications/platform/types.py.
File: types.py
class NotificationSource(StrEnum):
# MY_CATEGORY
MY_NEW_SOURCE = "my-new-source"
NOTIFICATION_SOURCE_MAP under the matching category key:NOTIFICATION_SOURCE_MAP[NotificationCategory.MY_CATEGORY].append(
NotificationSource.MY_NEW_SOURCE
)
If no existing NotificationCategory fits, add a new one to the NotificationCategory enum first, then create its entry in NOTIFICATION_SOURCE_MAP.
All NotificationCategory options are defined in the src/sentry/notifications/platform/types.py file.
The data class is a frozen dataclass implementing the NotificationData protocol. It carries everything the template needs to render.
File: templates/<your_notification>.py (new file)
from dataclasses import dataclass
from sentry.notifications.platform.types import NotificationData, NotificationSource
@dataclass(frozen=True)
class MyNotificationData(NotificationData):
source = NotificationSource.MY_NEW_SOURCE # class variable, not a field
title: str
detail_url: str
Rules:
source is a class variable (no type annotation), not a dataclass fieldfrozen=True for serialization safetyrender() methodFor full examples (DataExportSuccess, DataExportFailure), load
references/data-and-templates.md.
The template converts your data into a provider-agnostic NotificationRenderedTemplate.
Same file as Step 3: templates/<your_notification>.py
from sentry.notifications.platform.registry import template_registry
from sentry.notifications.platform.types import (
NotificationCategory,
NotificationRenderedAction,
NotificationRenderedTemplate,
NotificationTemplate,
ParagraphBlock,
PlainTextBlock,
)
@template_registry.register(MyNotificationData.source)
class MyNotificationTemplate(NotificationTemplate[MyNotificationData]):
category = NotificationCategory.MY_CATEGORY
example_data = MyNotificationData(
title="Example title",
detail_url="https://example.com",
)
def render(self, data: MyNotificationData) -> NotificationRenderedTemplate:
return NotificationRenderedTemplate(
subject=data.title,
body=[
ParagraphBlock(blocks=[PlainTextBlock(text="Something happened.")])
],
actions=[
NotificationRenderedAction(label="View Details", link=data.detail_url)
],
)
Available body block types:
Refer to src/sentry/notifications/platform/types.py for the latest available block types.
Register the import in templates/__init__.py:
from .my_notification import MyNotificationTemplate
This import is required so the @template_registry.register decorator executes at startup (via sentry/notifications/apps.py).
For the full rendered template field reference and more examples, load
references/data-and-templates.md.
The platform uses a tiered rollout system. Each notification source must be added to the appropriate rollout option before it will be delivered.
Rollout options are configured externally in sentry-options-automator (not this repo). The option keys are:
| Rollout stage | Option key |
|---|---|
| Internal testing | notifications.platform-rollout.internal-testing |
| Sentry orgs | notifications.platform-rollout.is-sentry |
| Early adopter | notifications.platform-rollout.early-adopter |
| General access | notifications.platform-rollout.general-access |
Each option is a Dict mapping source string to rollout rate (0.0-1.0). Example:
{"my-new-source": 1.0}
These options are registered in src/sentry/options/defaults.py (already done for the four stages above).
from sentry.notifications.platform.service import NotificationService
from sentry.notifications.platform.target import GenericNotificationTarget
from sentry.notifications.platform.types import (
NotificationProviderKey,
NotificationTargetResourceType,
)
data = MyNotificationData(title="Export ready", detail_url="https://...")
# Guard with rollout check
if NotificationService.has_access(organization, data.source):
service = NotificationService(data=data)
target = GenericNotificationTarget(
provider_key=NotificationProviderKey.EMAIL,
resource_type=NotificationTargetResourceType.EMAIL,
resource_id=user.email,
)
service.notify_async(targets=[target])
For target types, async/sync decisions, and strategy patterns, load
references/targets-and-sending.md.
Custom renderers bypass the default template-to-renderable conversion for a specific provider + category combination. Use when the default block-based rendering is too limiting (e.g., interactive Slack buttons, rich card layouts).
When to use:
How it works: Override get_renderer() on the provider to return your custom renderer class for the relevant category:
# In the provider class
@classmethod
def get_renderer(
cls, *, data: NotificationData, category: NotificationCategory
) -> type[NotificationRenderer[MyRenderable]]:
if category == NotificationCategory.MY_CATEGORY:
return MyCustomRenderer
return cls.default_renderer
File placement: {provider}/renderers/{name}.py (e.g., slack/renderers/seer.py)
For architecture details and the full Seer Slack renderer example, load
references/custom-renderers.md.
Adding a new provider requires implementing the NotificationProvider protocol, a default NotificationRenderer, and registering both. This should only be done when onboarding a new integration provider.
High-level steps:
{provider_name}/provider.py with provider + default renderer classes@provider_registry.register(NotificationProviderKey.MY_PROVIDER)NotificationProviderKey.MY_PROVIDER to the NotificationProviderKey enum in types.pysentry/notifications/apps.pyis_available()For the full provider scaffold and protocol requirements, load
references/provider-template.md.
Test directory: tests/sentry/notifications/platform/
class TestMyNotificationTemplate:
def test_render(self):
data = MyNotificationData(title="Test", detail_url="https://example.com")
template = MyNotificationTemplate()
rendered = template.render(data)
assert rendered.subject == "Test"
assert len(rendered.body) == 1
assert len(rendered.actions) == 1
assert rendered.actions[0].link == "https://example.com"
def test_render_example(self):
template = MyNotificationTemplate()
rendered = template.render_example()
assert rendered.subject # Verify example_data produces valid output
from unittest.mock import patch
from sentry.notifications.platform.service import NotificationService
class TestMyNotificationService:
@patch("sentry.notifications.platform.email.provider.EmailNotificationProvider.send")
def test_notify_target(self, mock_send):
data = MyNotificationData(title="Test", detail_url="https://example.com")
service = NotificationService(data=data)
target = GenericNotificationTarget(
provider_key=NotificationProviderKey.EMAIL,
resource_type=NotificationTargetResourceType.EMAIL,
resource_id="[email protected]",
)
service.notify_target(target=target)
assert mock_send.called
If you added a custom renderer, test that the provider dispatches to it:
def test_get_renderer_returns_custom():
data = MySpecialData(source=NotificationSource.MY_SOURCE, ...)
renderer = MyProvider.get_renderer(data=data, category=NotificationCategory.MY_CATEGORY)
assert renderer is MyCustomRenderer
Pre-flight checklist before submitting:
NotificationSource enum value added to types.pyNOTIFICATION_SOURCE_MAP under correct category@dataclass(frozen=True) with source as class variable@template_registry.register(DataClass.source)templates/__init__.pyexample_data on template produces valid output via render_example()sentry-options-automator)NotificationService.has_access()pytest -svv --reuse-db tests/sentry/notifications/platform/