Notifications

Vortex provides a flexible notification system that sends updates across multiple channels when deployments occur.

Notifications are triggered automatically during deployment to a hosting environment.

Channels

Configure notification channels in your .env file:

.env

# Enable notification channels (comma-separated list)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_CHANNELS=email,slack,github

Available channels: diffy, email, github, jira, newrelic, slack, webhook

Global environment variables

These variables apply to all notification channels unless overridden by channel-specific settings.

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_CHANNELS	No	email	.env	Notification channels (comma-separated)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_PROJECT	No	VORTEX_PROJECT	.env	Notification project name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SKIP	No		Hosting	Set to 1 to skip notifications

Deployment context variables

These variables provide deployment context information used by notification channels. They must be set by the hosting environment before calling the notification script.

Variable	Required	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_BRANCH	Yes	Git branch name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SHA	Yes	Git commit SHA
VORTEX_NOTIFY_PR_NUMBER	No	Pull request number (empty for branch deployments)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_LABEL	Yes	Human-readable deployment label

Branch filtering

Each notification channel can be restricted to specific branches using a VORTEX_NOTIFY_<CHANNEL>_BRANCHES variable. When set, the channel only sends notifications for deployments on the listed branches (comma-separated, exact match). When empty or unset, the channel runs on all branches.

For example, to restrict New Relic notifications to only main and staging:

VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_BRANCHES=main,staging

New Relic defaults to main,master,develop. All other channels default to no filter.

Message templates and tokens

Most notification channels support customizable message templates using replacement tokens:

Token	Description	Example
%project%	Project name	My Project
%label%	Deployment label	main or PR-123
%timestamp%	Current timestamp	15/11/2025 14:30:45 UTC
%environment_url%	Environment URL	https://example.com
%login_url%	Login URL	https://example.com/user/login

Default message template:

## This is an automated message ##

Site %project% %label% has been deployed at %timestamp% and is available at %environment_url%.

Login at: %login_url%

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Email

Send deployment notification via email.

Setup

1. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_FROM variable to .env file with the sender email address.
2. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_RECIPIENTS variable to .env file with recipients in format email|name (comma-separated for multiple).

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_FROM	Yes		.env	Sender email address
VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_RECIPIENTS	Yes		.env	Recipients (format: email|name)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_PROJECT	No	VORTEX_NOTIFY_PROJECT	.env	Project name for email
VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_MESSAGE	No	Default template	.env	Custom message template
VORTEX_NOTIFY_EMAIL_BRANCHES	No		.env	Restrict to specific branches (comma-separated)

---

GitHub

Post deployment status to GitHub pull requests.

Setup

1. Create a GitHub personal access token.
2. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_TOKEN to your hosting provider's environment variables.
3. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_REPOSITORY to your hosting provider's environment variables.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_TOKEN	Yes		Hosting	GitHub personal access token
VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_REPOSITORY	Yes		Hosting	Repository in owner/repo format
VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE	No	${VORTEX_NOTIFY_LABEL}	.env	Environment name (defaults to label, e.g. PR-123)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_BRANCHES	No		.env	Restrict to specific branches (comma-separated)

Example

The pull request page shows deployment status with a View deployment button to quickly access the deployed environment.

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JIRA

Post a deployment comment and optionally update issue status and assignee.

Setup

1. Create a JIRA API token.
2. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_TOKEN to your hosting provider's environment variables.
3. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_USER_EMAIL to your .env file.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_TOKEN	Yes		Hosting	JIRA API token
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_USER_EMAIL	Yes		.env	JIRA user email
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_PROJECT	No	VORTEX_NOTIFY_PROJECT	.env	Project name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_MESSAGE	No	Default template	.env	Custom message template
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_ASSIGNEE_EMAIL	No		.env	Assignee email after deployment
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_TRANSITION	No		.env	Transition name (e.g., "In Review")
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_ENDPOINT	No	https://jira.atlassian.com	.env	JIRA API endpoint
VORTEX_NOTIFY_JIRA_BRANCHES	No		.env	Restrict to specific branches (comma-separated)

Issue key extraction

The notification system automatically extracts JIRA issue keys from the deployment label using the pattern [A-Za-z0-9]+-[0-9]+:

• feature/PROJ-123-add-feature → PROJ-123
• feature/PRJ-456-fix-auth → PRJ-456

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New Relic

Create deployment markers in New Relic APM to track code changes alongside performance data.

Setup

1. Create a New Relic User API Key (format: NRAK-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX).
2. Add NEWRELIC_ENABLED (or VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_ENABLED) to hosting environment variables for environments where New Relic is configured.
3. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_USER_KEY to your hosting provider's environment variables.

Enable only where needed

Set NEWRELIC_ENABLED=true only in environments where New Relic APM is configured (typically production and staging). This avoids API calls and potential errors in development or feature branch environments.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_ENABLED	Yes	NEWRELIC_ENABLED	Hosting	Enable New Relic notifications
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_USER_KEY	Yes		Hosting	New Relic User API Key
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_PROJECT	No	VORTEX_NOTIFY_PROJECT	.env	Project name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_APP_NAME	No	Auto-generated	.env	Application name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_DESCRIPTION	No	Default template	.env	Deployment description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_CHANGELOG	No	Description	.env	Deployment changelog
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_USER	No	Deployment robot	.env	User performing deployment
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_ENDPOINT	No	https://api.newrelic.com/v2	.env	API endpoint
VORTEX_NOTIFY_NEWRELIC_BRANCHES	No	main,master,develop	.env	Restrict to specific branches (comma-separated)

Example

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Slack

Post deployment notifications to a Slack channel.

Setup

1. Create a Slack app and Incoming Webhook.
2. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_WEBHOOK to your hosting provider's environment variables.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_WEBHOOK	Yes		Hosting	Slack webhook URL
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_PROJECT	No	VORTEX_NOTIFY_PROJECT	.env	Project name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_MESSAGE	No	Default template	.env	Fallback text template
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_CHANNEL	No		.env	Target channel (overrides webhook default)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_USERNAME	No	Deployment Bot	.env	Bot display name
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_ICON_EMOJI	No	:rocket:	.env	Bot icon emoji
VORTEX_NOTIFY_SLACK_BRANCHES	No		.env	Restrict to specific branches (comma-separated)

Event behavior

Slack notifications are sent for both pre_deployment and post_deployment events:

• Pre-deployment: Gray color with "Deployment Starting" status
• Post-deployment: Green color with "Deployment Complete" status

Example

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Webhook

Send HTTP requests to arbitrary webhook URLs.

Setup

1. Add VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_URL to your .env file or hosting environment variables.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_URL	Yes		.env or Hosting	Webhook endpoint URL
VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_METHOD	No	POST	.env	HTTP method
VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_HEADERS	No	Content-Type: application/json	.env	Pipe-separated headers
VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_PAYLOAD	No	Default template	.env	JSON payload
VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_RESPONSE_STATUS	No	200	.env	Expected HTTP status
VORTEX_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_BRANCHES	No		.env	Restrict to specific branches (comma-separated)

Default payload template

{
  "channel": "Channel 1",
  "message": "%message%",
  "project": "%project%",
  "label": "%label%",
  "timestamp": "%timestamp%",
  "environment_url": "%environment_url%",
  "login_url": "%login_url%"
}

The %message% token expands to the full deployment message with all other tokens replaced.

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Diffy

Dispatch a visual regression run against the just-deployed environment via the shipped GitHub Actions workflow.

This channel does not call Diffy directly. It sends a GitHub repository_dispatch event to the consumer repository; the test-vr.yml workflow then runs the actual Diffy comparison and posts the result back to the pull request.

Setup

1. Enable visual regression during installation (or ship test-vr.yml manually) - see Visual regression.
2. Add a GitHub token with repo scope as VORTEX_NOTIFY_DIFFY_TOKEN to the hosting environment (falls back to VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_TOKEN, then GITHUB_TOKEN).
3. Add diffy to VORTEX_NOTIFY_CHANNELS.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Location	Description
VORTEX_NOTIFY_DIFFY_TOKEN	Yes	VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_TOKEN, then GITHUB_TOKEN	Hosting	GitHub token with repo scope used to call repository_dispatch
VORTEX_NOTIFY_DIFFY_REPOSITORY	Yes	VORTEX_NOTIFY_GITHUB_REPOSITORY	Hosting	Repository in owner/repo format
VORTEX_NOTIFY_DIFFY_SOURCE_ENV	No	production	.env	Diffy source environment used as the baseline (production, staging, development)
VORTEX_NOTIFY_DIFFY_EVENT_TYPE	No	vr_run	.env	repository_dispatch event type the workflow listens for
VORTEX_NOTIFY_DIFFY_BRANCHES	No		.env	Restrict dispatch to specific branches (comma-separated). When empty, every deployment dispatches and the workflow gates on PR label

Event behavior

Diffy dispatch only runs for post_deployment events. pre_deployment is skipped because the target environment is not yet ready for comparison.