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How can my coding agent list the alert rules and channels in Rius?

Your coding agent lists alert rules with the Rius MCP tool list_alert_rules and delivery channels with list_alert_channels. Each takes one optional argument, workspace, and returns a Markdown table. Ask in plain words, such as “What alerts are configured?” or “Where do my alerts go?”, and your client picks the tool.

How it works

The Rius MCP server exposes two read tools for alerting setup. They are separate because they carry different permissions.

  • list_alert_rules lists every rule in the workspace, predefined and custom together. Predefined rules are the built-in detectors, one per kind, which you can configure and toggle but not create or delete. Custom rules are ones someone built from the metric catalog.
  • list_alert_channels lists where the workspace’s alerts can be delivered. It needs the channels:manage capability rather than plain read, because its target column shows the real destination: a webhook URL, an email recipient list or a Slack channel.

Both take only workspace. Pass a workspace name or ID, or omit it to use your default workspace. If the same workspace name exists in two of your organizations, pass it as org/workspace. To discover names, your agent can call list_workspaces.

The tools give your agent the identifiers it needs for follow-up work:

  • The ref column of list_alert_rules is what update_alert_rule and delete_alert_rule take. It is a kind name for a predefined rule and a uuid for a custom one.
  • The channel ids from list_alert_channels are what create_alert_rule and update_alert_rule take in channel_ids.

See the tool reference for every argument.

Set it up

  1. Connect your coding agent to the Rius MCP server if it is not connected yet. For Claude Code, run this and complete the OAuth sign-in the first time a session uses the server:
claude mcp add --transport http rius https://mcp.eu.console.rius-glassflow.com/mcp

If you use the Rius plugin, it already registers this server as rius, so skip this step. The MCP page has the lines for Codex, Cursor and other clients.

  1. Check the permissions. Rules are covered by the alert reads, so a read-scoped API key can list them. Channels need more. For a headless agent, an admin mints a key with Manage notification channels (channels:manage) in the Connect an agent dialog of the console’s MCP page. Add that key as a separate server, for example named rius-key if the plugin already provides rius:
claude mcp add --transport http rius-key https://mcp.eu.console.rius-glassflow.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer ${RIUS_API_KEY}"

On an OAuth session, the alert-management tools work only for admins, as in the console.

  1. Ask in plain words. For the rules:

What alerts are configured?

Your client sends:

{ "name": "list_alert_rules", "arguments": {} }
  1. Ask for the channels:

Where do my alerts go?

{ "name": "list_alert_channels", "arguments": {} }
  1. To target another workspace, name it in the question, and your client adds the workspace argument.

To see what has fired rather than what is configured, ask your agent for open alerts. It uses list_alerts for that.

What you get

  • A table of rules. Predefined and custom rules appear together, each with its ref, ready for your agent to pass to update_alert_rule or delete_alert_rule.
  • A table of channels. Each row shows the channel and its target, such as the webhook URL, the email recipients or the Slack channel, so your agent can answer where alerts go. The channel ids feed channel_ids when you create or change a rule.
  • A clear message when access is missing. A connection that is not allowed to use a tool gets a reply explaining why, and nothing changes. Both list tools only read.
  • A hint when the rule list is empty. A predefined rule appears only once alert-manager has reached the workspace, so an empty list can mean detection has not started yet.

This fits into the wider workflow in Monitor AI agents in production, where your agent can read alerts and traces from the editor.

When something else fits

  • If you want to see which alerts have fired, use list_alerts or get_alert. Rules and channels describe configuration, not firings.
  • If you only need to look at rules and channels yourself, the Rius console shows them without an MCP connection.
  • To change a rule or channel rather than list it, use the create, update and delete tools. They need a key with alerts:manage or channels:manage, or an admin session.

Still stuck? Get help

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