Cascade Alerts
When a controlled document is published, Change Impact Analysis creates an alert for the Owner of every linked document. Alerts are routed by ownership: if you own a document that’s connected to the one that changed, the alert lands with you (see Document Roles and the Controlled Lifecycle).
Find them under Pings → Alerts in the sidebar — the Impact Cascade Alerts page, with summary cards for Total Open, Critical, Warning, and Info.
Severity Levels
| Severity | Color | Meaning | Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 🔴 Red | Immediate review needed — a core dependency changed | Address immediately |
| Warning | 🟡 Yellow | Important change — review needed soon | Address within 24 hours |
| Info | 🔵 Blue | Awareness only — minor connected change | Review when convenient |
What an Alert Looks Like
Every alert is document-change driven. Typical examples:
- A Policy you implement was republished — your SOP’s owner gets an alert: does the procedure still satisfy the updated rule?
- An SOP your Work Instruction supports changed — the WI owner reviews whether the steps still match
- A document your Training trains on was updated — the Training owner checks whether the material is now stale
Each alert card shows the trigger summary (what was published), the affected document you own with an impact message, a suggested action where available, and an expandable AI Analysis panel — an AI-generated explanation of what changed and why it matters to your document.
Handling Alerts
Alerts move through four statuses — Open, Acknowledged, Resolved, and Dismissed — and the page has filter pills for each, plus severity filters.
| Action | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Acknowledge | You’ve seen the alert and will deal with it — keeps it active but marks it as triaged |
| Resolve | You’ve reviewed (and updated, if needed) your affected document |
| Dismiss | The change doesn’t actually affect your document |
Batch Actions
For large cascades, use the checkboxes (or Select All) and click Resolve N Selected to clear multiple alerts at once.
For working through suggested fixes in detail, see Resolving Cascade Alerts with Suggested Actions.
Tip: Acknowledge first, resolve after. Acknowledging tells the rest of the team the impact has an owner; resolving says the affected document has actually been reviewed against the new version.