Documentation | 2025.1

# Notifications

Provided you have entered a working email address for your userid in Helix Core Server, Swarm sends email notifications to you when various events take place. The table below shows the notifications sent if all of the project, group, and user notifications are enabled. This is the default behavior.

The system-wide default notifications can be changed by the system owner. See Global settings for details.

Many of the notifications can be disabled, this allows project, group, and user notifications to be customized to limit the number and type of notifications sent.

- Project notifications are configured on the project settings tab.
- Group notifications are configured on the group Notifications tab.
- User notifications are configured on the user Notifications tab.

Legend:

A = Author | PM = Project member or project member group | Yes = role user/group receives notification
R = Reviewer or reviewer group | PF = Project follower | No = role user/group does not receive notification
M = Moderator or moderator group | AF = Author follower | NA = role not included for this event
GM = Group member | CA = Comment author |

Event | Notification sent to one of these roles...
--- | ---
Event by you? | A | R | M | GM | PM | PF | AF | CA
A review is committed in Swarm | No | Yes | Yes | Yes See (3) | Yes See (4) | Yes See (1) | Yes See (1) | No | NA
A review is committed outside of Swarm | No | No | Yes | Yes See (3) | Yes See (4) | Yes See (1) | Yes See (1) | No | NA
A change is committed outside of Swarm See (1) Committed change notifications | No | No | NA | Yes See (3) | Yes See (4) | Yes See (1) | Yes See (1) | Yes See (1) | NA
A review is started See (2) Review start notifications | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes See (3) | Yes See (4) | Yes See (2) | No | No | NA
A review is created automatically by the On commit without a review workflow rule | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | NA
A reviewer casts a vote | Yes | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | NA
A review's state changes | No | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | NA
A review's reviewers are changed | No | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | NA
A review's files are updated | Yes | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | NA
A review's automated tests have finished See (7) Tests have finished | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | NA
A review's description is changed | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | NA
A review comment is created See Comment notification delay | No | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | No See (6)
A review comment is edited See Comment notification delay | No | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | No See (6)
A committed change comment is created | No | Yes | NA | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | No See (6)
A committed change comment is edited | No | Yes | NA | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | No See (6)
Someone joins or leaves a review | No | Yes | Yes See (5) | No | Yes See (4) | No | No | No | NA
Someone likes a comment you wrote | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes See (5)
You like a comment you wrote | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No

Any custom modules added to Swarm may also send notifications.

Email delivery for events related to restricted changes is disabled by default. See Restricted Changes for details on how to enable restricted change notifications.

## @mention notifications

### Users: @mention

Using an @mention in a review, changelist, or comment causes the referenced userid to receive a notification and be included in any future notifications regarding the associated file or review.

When a comment is added to a job, Swarm sends a notification to users listed in user fields in the job, users @mentioned in the job description, and the authors of any associated changes.

Typically, you would not receive a notification when you @mention yourself. @mentions themselves do not trigger notifications; they inform who receives notifications. See notify_self for details on how to enable self notification.

### Groups: @@mention

Using an @@mention in a review, changelist, or comment causes the referenced groupid members to receive a notification and be included in any future notifications regarding the associated file or review.

When a comment is added to a job, Swarm sends a notification to groups listed in group fields in the job, groups @@mentioned in the job description, and the authors of any associated changes.

- Group mailing list enabled: notifications are sent to the group email address.

  When a group mailing list is enabled it overrides the group member's preference set for the notify_self configurable in the `SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php` file. So even when the notify_self configurable is set to false the group member will receive an email notification.

  There is a caveat that if a user is a group member and the same user is added individually to the review and has set the notify_self configurable to true, the user receives two email notifications.

- Group mailing list disabled: notifications are sent to the group members individual email addresses.

## (1) Committed change notifications

Notifications for committed changes are sent by default, but can be disabled or require users to opt-in. Please see the notification configuration and project settings overview for more details.

When committed change notifications are configured for opt-in, you need to copy the configuration's special depot path to the `Reviews:` field in your user spec within Helix Core Server. Once you have done so, Swarm can send you committed change notifications for any change that matches a depot path specified in the `Reviews:` field.

### Update Reviews with p4

1. Begin editing your user spec:

       $ p4 user

2. Edit the `Reviews:` field to include the special depot path, plus any other paths you want to receive notifications for.
3. Save the spec.

### Update Reviews with P4V

1. Select Connection > Edit Current User.
2. Edit the `Reviews:` field to include the special depot path, plus any other paths you want to receive notifications for.
3. Click OK.

## (2) Review start notifications

By default, notifications are sent when a review is started, but can be disabled for a project, group, or user.

If a user or group is added as a reviewer when a new review is created, the reviewer will be notified that the review has been started. This initial notification cannot be muted.

## (3) Moderator notifications

Moderators and moderator groups are associated with specific project branches. Moderators receive notifications for reviews and commits against the branches they are associated with.

## (4) Group member notifications

Groups can be members of a project, moderators of a project branch, and reviewers of a review. The notifications that group members receive will depend on, the role the group has and the group notification settings that are configured for that group. Notifications received by group members also depend on whether the group has a group mailing list enabled, in this case additional notification settings are available. See Group mailing list enabled below for details.

### Group mailing list disabled

Group members can be notified when a member of the group starts a review. Group members can also be notified when a change is committed by, or on behalf of, a changelist owner who is also a member of the group. These two notifications can be individually selected as required. See Add a group for details. Notifications are sent to the group email address.

Notifications are sent to the group members individual email addresses.

### Group mailing list enabled

Group members can be notified when a member of the group starts a review. Group members can also be notified when a change is committed by, or on behalf of, a changelist owner who is also a member of the group. These two notifications can be individually selected as required.

When a group mailing list is enabled it overrides the group member's preference set for the notify_self configurable in the `SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php` file. So even when the notify_self configurable is set to false the group member will receive an email notification.

There is a caveat that if a user is a group member and the same user is added individually to the review and has set the notify_self configurable to true, the user receives two email notifications.

For more information about notify_self configurable, see notify_self.

Additional notifications are available if the group mailing list address is enabled. See Add a group for details.

## (5) Disable notifications

By default, notifications for events in a review are sent to all reviewers. Reviewers can disable notifications during a review to avoid further email notifications. Once notifications are disabled for a reviewer, they can be re-enabled when they are specifically @mentioned; reviewers can disable notifications again after they have been re-enabled. See Disable notifications for details.

## (6) Comment author notifications

By default, notifications are not sent to comment authors, but Swarm can be configured to send notifications of comments to comment authors. See notify_self for details.

## (7) Tests have finished

By default, notifications are sent when:

- Automated tests have failed for a review.
- The first time automated tests pass for a review after a test failure for that review.

The test notifications email contains the complete URL to the tests.

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