Message Priority

Priority levels help you categorize the urgency and importance of your notifications.

Priority Levels

Notifer supports 5 priority levels (1-5):

Level	Name	Description	Use Case	Icon
5	Max/Urgent	Critical, time-sensitive alerts	System down, security breach, critical errors	🚨
4	High	Important, requires attention	Warnings, high-priority tasks, failed jobs	⚠️
3	Default	Standard notifications	General updates, info messages, routine events	ℹ️
2	Low	Informational, can wait	Logs, background tasks, low-priority updates	📝
1	Min	Very low priority, optional	Debug messages, verbose logging	🔍

Default: If you don't specify priority, it defaults to 3 (Default).

Setting Priority

Via HTTP Headers

Use the X-Priority header when publishing:

# Urgent alert
curl -d "Production server is down!" \
  -H "X-Priority: 5" \
  https://app.notifer.io/alerts

# High priority warning
curl -d "Database backup failed" \
  -H "X-Priority: 4" \
  https://app.notifer.io/backups

# Default priority (same as omitting the header)
curl -d "User signed up" \
  -H "X-Priority: 3" \
  https://app.notifer.io/events

# Low priority info
curl -d "Maintenance window scheduled" \
  -H "X-Priority: 2" \
  https://app.notifer.io/maintenance

# Debug message
curl -d "Function X called with param Y" \
  -H "X-Priority: 1" \
  https://app.notifer.io/debug

Via Web App

When publishing from the web dashboard:

1. Click "Publish" button
2. Enter your message
3. Select priority from dropdown (1-5)
4. Click "Send"

Via API

When using the REST API:

curl -X POST https://app.notifer.io/my-topic \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -H "X-Priority: 5" \
  -d "Critical message"

Priority in Mobile Apps

Notification Filtering

In the mobile app, you can filter notifications by minimum priority:

1. Open topic → Settings → Notifications
2. Set "Minimum Priority" (e.g., only show priority 4+)
3. Save settings

This means: - Priority 1-3 messages: Silent (no push notification) - Priority 4-5 messages: Push notification sent

Example: Set minimum priority to 4 for critical-only alerts on your phone.

Notification Sounds

Different priorities can trigger different notification sounds:

Priority	Default Sound	Vibration
5 (Max)	Urgent alarm	Strong
4 (High)	Alert tone	Medium
3 (Default)	Standard chime	Light
2 (Low)	Soft tone	None
1 (Min)	Silent	None

Configure custom sounds per topic in the mobile app.

Priority in Web Dashboard

Visual Indicators

Messages are color-coded by priority:

• Priority 5: 🔴 Red background, bold text
• Priority 4: 🟠 Orange accent
• Priority 3: ⚪ Default styling
• Priority 2: 🔵 Muted blue
• Priority 1: ⚫ Gray, smaller text

Sorting

Messages can be sorted by priority:

1. Go to topic page
2. Click "Sort" dropdown
3. Select "Priority (High to Low)"

Use Cases by Priority

Priority 5: Max/Urgent 🚨

Critical system failures:

curl -d "Database PRIMARY is DOWN - all writes failing!" \
  -H "X-Title: CRITICAL: Database Failure" \
  -H "X-Priority: 5" \
  -H "X-Tags: critical,database,production" \
  https://app.notifer.io/alerts

Security incidents:

curl -d "Unauthorized access detected from IP 185.xxx.xxx.xxx" \
  -H "X-Title: SECURITY ALERT" \
  -H "X-Priority: 5" \
  -H "X-Tags: security,intrusion" \
  https://app.notifer.io/security

Time-critical events:

curl -d "SSL certificate expires in 2 hours!" \
  -H "X-Title: URGENT: Certificate Expiring" \
  -H "X-Priority: 5" \
  https://app.notifer.io/certificates

Priority 4: High ⚠️

Warnings and failures:

curl -d "Backup job failed with exit code 1" \
  -H "X-Title: Backup Failed" \
  -H "X-Priority: 4" \
  -H "X-Tags: backup,failure" \
  https://app.notifer.io/backups

Performance issues:

curl -d "API response time p95: 2.5s (threshold: 500ms)" \
  -H "X-Title: High Latency Detected" \
  -H "X-Priority: 4" \
  -H "X-Tags: performance,api" \
  https://app.notifer.io/monitoring

Priority 3: Default ℹ️

General updates:

curl -d "Deployment v2.1.0 completed successfully" \
  -H "X-Title: Deploy Success" \
  -H "X-Priority: 3" \
  -H "X-Tags: deploy,success" \
  https://app.notifer.io/deployments

Standard notifications:

curl -d "New user registration: john@example.com" \
  -H "X-Priority: 3" \
  https://app.notifer.io/users

Priority 2: Low 📝

Background tasks:

curl -d "Daily cleanup job completed: 2.3GB freed" \
  -H "X-Title: Cleanup Complete" \
  -H "X-Priority: 2" \
  https://app.notifer.io/maintenance

Informational logs:

curl -d "Cache hit rate: 95%, evictions: 120/hour" \
  -H "X-Priority: 2" \
  https://app.notifer.io/stats

Priority 1: Min 🔍

Debug information:

curl -d "Function processOrder() called (orderID: 12345)" \
  -H "X-Priority: 1" \
  -H "X-Tags: debug,trace" \
  https://app.notifer.io/debug

Verbose logging:

curl -d "HTTP GET /api/users - 200 OK - 45ms" \
  -H "X-Priority: 1" \
  https://app.notifer.io/access-log

Best Practices

1. Use Priority Consistently

Define priority guidelines for your team:

Priority 5: Production is down or serious security issue
Priority 4: Degraded service or failed critical job
Priority 3: Normal operations, successful deployments
Priority 2: Maintenance, scheduled tasks
Priority 1: Debug, development only

2. Don't Overuse Max Priority

❌ Bad:

# Everything is urgent - nothing is urgent
curl -d "User logged in" -H "X-Priority: 5" ...
curl -d "Cache cleared" -H "X-Priority: 5" ...

✅ Good:

# Only truly critical events
curl -d "Payment gateway DOWN" -H "X-Priority: 5" ...
curl -d "User logged in" -H "X-Priority: 3" ...  # Default

3. Filter Mobile Notifications

For on-call scenarios: - Work topics: Minimum priority 4 (only urgent alerts) - Personal topics: Minimum priority 3 (all standard messages) - Debug topics: Minimum priority 1 or disable push entirely

4. Combine with Tags

Priority + Tags = Powerful filtering:

curl -d "Server prod-web-01 CPU: 98%" \
  -H "X-Priority: 4" \
  -H "X-Tags: warning,cpu,prod-web-01" \
  https://app.notifer.io/monitoring

In the app, filter by: - Priority ≥ 4 (warnings and critical) - Tag = "prod-web-01" (specific server)

API Response

When you publish a message, the priority is included in the response:

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "topic": "alerts",
  "message": "Server is down",
  "title": "Critical Alert",
  "priority": 5,
  "tags": ["critical", "server"],
  "timestamp": "2025-11-22T10:30:00Z"
}

Next Steps

• Tags - Organize messages with tags
• Markdown - Rich text formatting
• Mobile App - Configure notification settings
• Publishing Guide - Send messages with priority

---

Pro Tip: Use priority 5 sparingly - it should wake you up at 3 AM. Everything else can probably wait until morning! 😴