# Routing rules

Source: https://instatus.com/help/incident-response/routing-rules

Every triggered incident starts at your routing rules. They decide who gets notified: a teammate, a group, an on-call schedule, or an escalation policy.

![Add a new routing rule](https://instatus.com/help/incidents/add-routing.png)

## Add a rule

Go to **On-call**, find the routing rules section, and click **Add rule**.

A rule has two parts:

**Conditions** — what the incident must match. You can filter on:

- **Impact**: the incident's severity.
- **Title** and **Description**: match on the incident's content.
- **Incident affects**: which components are affected.
- **Triggered by**: what created the incident, like a specific team member.

Add multiple conditions and choose whether the rule fires when **all** conditions are met or when **any** condition is met.

**Target** — who to notify when the rule matches:

- A specific **member** or **group**
- The on-call user in an **on-call schedule**
- An **escalation policy**

## Rule order and the fallback

Rules are evaluated in order, and you can drag them to reorder. Add one **ELSE** rule at the end as a fallback, so incidents that match nothing still reach someone.

Your incidents now route themselves to the right people 🧭

- [Manage incidents from Slack](https://instatus.com/help/incident-response/slack): Learn how to declare and manage incidents from Slack.