What on-call scheduling software should solve
An on-call schedule answers a simple operational question: who is responsible right now? The answer becomes less simple when a team has multiple time zones, handoffs, layered coverage, vacations, temporary replacements and different escalation paths.
IncidentRelay keeps scheduling close to alert routing. A schedule is not an isolated calendar: it determines which responder receives an alert, when reminders are sent and who is next if the current person does not acknowledge the incident.
Schedules, shifts and rotation layers
Teams can create rotations and add members to one or more layers. Each layer can define its own participants, timing and restrictions. IncidentRelay calculates the final on-call result from those layers, giving operators one current owner while preserving the structure behind it.
- Create team-specific on-call rotations.
- Use layers for primary, secondary or time-restricted coverage.
- Set membership periods so planned changes do not rewrite history.
- Apply temporary overrides without rebuilding the base schedule.
- Connect rotations to routes and escalation policies.
Temporary overrides for real life
People take vacations, trade shifts and occasionally discover that two calendars disagree five minutes before a handoff. Rotation overrides replace the scheduled person for a defined period while leaving the original rotation configuration intact.
This makes the operational schedule explicit and auditable. Responders can see the final owner, while administrators retain the underlying rotation and override history.
Calendar access
IncidentRelay includes an internal calendar and supports read-only calendar synchronization. Teams can subscribe through CalDAV or private ICS feeds and view on-call shifts in Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Thunderbird and compatible clients.
Calendar subscriptions are useful for visibility, but IncidentRelay remains the source of truth for alert ownership and escalation. Moving an event in a personal calendar does not silently rewrite the operational schedule.
Scheduling connected to alert response
A schedule becomes valuable when it drives action. Incoming alerts are matched to routes, services, teams and rotations. IncidentRelay then notifies the current on-call user through configured channels and can escalate when an alert remains unacknowledged.
Notification options include Mattermost, Telegram, email, browser push, webhooks and pluggable voice providers. Responders can acknowledge or resolve incidents while keeping ownership visible.
Who is it for?
IncidentRelay is designed for SRE, DevOps, platform, infrastructure and operations teams that want an on-call scheduling system inside their own environment. It is especially relevant when alert data, user data and schedules should remain under the team's control.
Teams deploying it in production should test their scheduling rules, notification channels, backups and deployment model first.