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Simulate, then activate a monitor

A monitor goes through three states: draft → simulated → active. You never skip straight to active.

Step 1 — Simulate

On the monitor version page, click Simulate. EvalGate runs the scorer against historical traces that match the filter and shows you the would-be alert rate, score distribution, and any samples that would have fired. A screenshot of the simulation results showing the would-be alert rate.

Step 2 — Adjust if needed

If the simulation fires too often or never, adjust the threshold or scorer, save a new version, and simulate again. A monitor that never fires is as useless as one that always fires.

Step 3 — Activate

When the simulation looks right, click Activate. The monitor now samples live traffic, scores it, and can fire alerts. A screenshot of the Activate button on a simulated monitor.

Step 4 — Pause or resume

You can pause an active monitor at any time (for example, during an incident) and resume it later. Pausing keeps the version; it only stops sampling.

Backfill

If you need to score older traffic under the current monitor, use Backfill with a bounded time window. Backfill is explicit and bounded — it does not silently re-score everything.

Up next

When the monitor fires, read the alert.