## Overview

Lags in your data pipeline can cause delays in log and metric ingestion, potentially leading to false alerts. While alert conditions are evaluated in real-time, delayed data arriving later can retroactively affect whether those conditions are met.

When an alert should be triggered above a user-defined threshold, missing data may delay it or lead to an incorrect resolution. Conversely, when an alert should be triggered below a user-defined threshold, incomplete data can cause a false positive alert or delayed alert resolution.

The **Custom Evaluation Delay** feature helps mitigate this issue by shifting an alert's evaluation timeframe backward by a configurable amount. This adjustment ensures that alert conditions are evaluated against a more complete dataset, accounting for late-arriving logs or metrics.

By using Evaluation Delay, you can reduce the risk of false positives or negatives caused by real-time data fluctuations and improve the accuracy and reliability of your alerts.

## Configuration

1. Navigate to the Alert creation window. This can be done in two ways:
   1. **Logs** - Perform a query to filter the logs that will be returned as part of the alert. Click **CREATE ALERT** in the upper right-hand corner.
   1. **Logs/metrics/traces** - Click on **Alerts**, then **Alert Management** in the Coralogix toolbar. Click **NEW ALERT** on the upper right-hand corner of your dashboard.
1. Click on **Advanced Settings**.
1. Select **Delay alert evaluation** and choose a specific time period for the delay.

## Related resources

[Configure alert definition](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/alerting/configuring-alert-definition/) [Introduction to alerts](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/alerting/introduction-to-alerts/)

## Next steps

Adjust anomaly detection thresholds for your alerts in [Customizing anomaly detection alert sensitivity](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/alerting/anomaly-detection-deviation-percentage/index.md).

## Support

Reach our customer success team 24/7 via the in-app chat or by email at [support@coralogix.com](mailto:support@coralogix.com).