# Wake, tell, log

> Every problem gets one of three levels. The rules are simple, and they only ever fail toward louder.

URL: https://pagerless.dev/docs/levels
Updated: 2026-10-22

| Level | What is sent | Quiet hours |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wake | Push to your phone with I'm on it. No tap in 5 minutes: a phone call. No answer: the next person, push then call. | Ignored: wake always goes through |
| Tell | One message to the first person who can be reached (push, Slack, Telegram, email or webhook). No call. | Held until they end |
| Log | Nothing. Recorded on the problem and counted in the weekly email. | n/a |

## The four floors

These always wake someone. The AI is never asked about them, and they are checked before anything else.

| Floor | Fires when |
| --- | --- |
| App silent | No heartbeat for 5 minutes (the SDK sends one every 60 seconds) |
| Crash loop | 3 or more restarts |
| 5xx burst | 10 or more server errors, at least 5% of requests and at least 3× your normal rate |
| Payments failing | 3 or more payment errors, and at least 2% of payment requests when request counts are known |

## The decision order

1. Floor? Wake.
2. Same as the normal background for this app? Log.
3. AI allowance used up? Tell, without the diagnosis.
4. Otherwise the AI helper (Claude) picks the level from the scrubbed samples and recent deploys.
5. If the AI is unsure, slow or fails: tell. Never log.

> A failed alert path gets louder, never quieter. That rule is in the code, not just this page.