> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.spike.sh/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.spike.sh/incidents/what-is-an-incident.md).

# What is an incident?

An incident is any issue that needs to be investigated and resolved. When a connected monitoring tool detects a problem, Spike creates an incident and alerts the right person based on the [escalation policy](/escalations/introduction-to-escalations.md) attached to that integration.

## Examples

Common examples of incidents include:

* CPU or memory utilization crossing a critical threshold
* Database monitoring alerts
* Database backup failures
* Billing process failures
* Notification delivery failures
* Dashboard loading errors
* Website downtime

{% hint style="info" %}
You can also create incidents directly from your code using a [webhook integration](/integrations-guideline/integrating-with-webhooks.md).
{% endhint %}

## Incident statuses

Every incident has one of three statuses. See [incident statuses](/incidents/incident-statuses.md) for the full breakdown.

<figure><img src="/files/0Rkg17gfblu4IK5SFECw" alt="Incident statuses on Spike"><figcaption><p>The three incident statuses: Triggered, Acknowledged, and Resolved.</p></figcaption></figure>

### Triggered

A triggered incident means Spike has detected a problem and is actively alerting. Spike works through the escalation policy, sending alerts until someone acknowledges or resolves the incident. Repeat incidents are automatically suppressed to reduce [alert fatigue](/alerts/personal-alerts-management.md).

### Acknowledged

An acknowledged incident means someone is working on a fix. Spike stops alerting and pauses the escalation policy. You can optionally set an [acknowledge timeout](/incidents/acknowledge-timeout.md): a time limit after which Spike moves the incident back to triggered and resumes alerting if it hasn't been resolved.

### Resolved

A resolved incident means the issue is fixed. Spike stops all alerts and resets the escalation policy for any future incidents on that integration.