Notifications
CostPilot surfaces two distinct types of signals: notifications and alerts. They serve different purposes and are available on different plans.
Notifications vs Alerts
| Notifications | Alerts | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Operational awareness | Cost threshold enforcement |
| Availability | All plans | Paid plans |
| Trigger | Platform events | Cost rules you configure |
| Example | ”Cluster connected" | "Namespace spend exceeded £500” |
| Location | Notification bell (header) | Alerts settings + notification bell |
Notifications are always on. They require no configuration and do not count against any plan limits. They keep you informed about what CostPilot is doing and what is happening with your connected infrastructure.
Alerts are a paid feature that let you define cost thresholds and receive a notification when a namespace, team, or cluster exceeds them. See the Alerts documentation for setup instructions.
Types of Operational Notifications
CostPilot generates notifications for the following events:
Cluster Events
- Cluster connected — a new cluster has successfully sent its first metrics batch and is now visible in CostPilot
- Cluster disconnected — CostPilot has not received metrics from a previously active cluster within the expected window; this may indicate the agent has stopped or been uninstalled
A “cluster disconnected” notification does not automatically resolve. Once the agent resumes sending metrics, a new “cluster connected” notification will be generated. Check the Nodes page to confirm data is flowing again.
Insights Events
- Insights generated — CostPilot’s AI analysis has completed a new round of insight generation for your cluster; new cards will be available on the Insights page
Insights are generated automatically as your metrics volume grows. You do not need to trigger them manually.
Team Events
- Member added — a new user has accepted an invitation and joined your organisation
- Member removed — a user has been removed from your organisation
Where Notifications Appear
The notification bell icon in the top-right header shows a badge count when you have unread notifications. Clicking it opens the notification panel, which lists all recent events in reverse chronological order.
Notifications are delivered in real time via Server-Sent Events (SSE). This means new notifications appear immediately without requiring a page refresh. If you have CostPilot open in your browser when an event occurs, you will see the badge update and the notification appear within seconds.
SSE connections are lightweight and persistent. CostPilot maintains a single connection per browser session. If your connection drops (e.g. laptop sleep, network change), it will reconnect automatically and replay any notifications you may have missed.
Notification Retention
CostPilot retains your notification history. You can scroll back through past events in the notification panel. Older notifications are not deleted automatically, giving you a lightweight audit trail of platform activity without needing to consult logs.
Keeping Notifications Actionable
Because notifications are operational rather than noisy, every notification in CostPilot represents something worth knowing. There are no marketing notifications, digest emails, or system health pings in the notification stream.
If you find the notification panel empty, that is a good sign — it means your cluster is connected, insights have been generated, and your team access is stable.