# Set up your first notification flow

Get started with Notification Center by setting up your first notification flow, from an alert in Coralogix to a third-party service like Slack or PagerDuty. This guide walks you through the essentials: creating a connector, selecting or customizing a preset, defining routing rules, and sending a test notification.

## What you need

Before you start, make sure you have:

- a Coralogix account with permission to manage integrations
- an existing integration configured for your destination (for example, Slack or PagerDuty)
- at least one alert definition to use for testing
- a clear naming convention for environments or services that you can reuse as routing labels

## Access Notification Center

1. Select **Integrations**, then **Notification Center**.
1. Review the tabs across the top: **Routers**, **Connectors**, **Presets**.
   - Routers direct notifications based on labels and conditions.
   - Connectors link Coralogix to external tools.
   - Presets define message templates.

## Create a connector

A connector defines where Coralogix sends your notification, such as a Slack workspace or PagerDuty service. Reuse a connector across multiple routing rules.

1. In the **Connectors** tab, select **+ New connector**.
1. Select the **destination type** (Slack, PagerDuty, or Generic HTTPS).
1. Fill in the required configuration fields such as URL or authentication key.
1. Select **Send test notification** to verify connectivity.

Learn more in [Connectors](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/notification-center/connectors/index.md).

## Create a preset

A preset defines what information the notification includes and how it is formatted.

Coralogix automatically creates a system preset the first time you create a connector for a destination type. Use the system preset if you do not need customization.

1. Select the **Presets** tab.
1. Start with the system preset for your destination type.
1. Create a custom preset if you want to modify the message or use dynamic variables.

Learn more in [Presets overview](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/notification-center/presets/introduction/index.md).

## Set up routing

Routing determines which entities send notifications to which destinations.

1. Select the **Routers** tab, then **+ Create router**.
1. Define routing labels such as `team`, `environment`, or `service`.
1. Add one or more routing rules. Each rule includes:
   - **Condition**: Defines when the rule matches. Use entity attributes such as priority or name. Set the condition to `true` to match all requests.
   - **Destination**: A connector + preset pair. When the condition matches, Coralogix sends a notification to all listed destinations.

Learn more in [Routing overview](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/notification-center/routing/introduction/index.md).

## Send a test notification

After you set up your connector, preset, and router:

1. Open any alert definition.
1. In **Destinations**, choose your router or connector + preset combination.
1. Select **Send test notification** to confirm delivery.

If successful, the test message appears in your selected destination (for example, Slack or PagerDuty).

## Route Case notifications

Notification Center also routes Case lifecycle events. Cases use the same routing infrastructure--routers, connectors, and presets--but have their own routing rules and notification triggers.

To set up Case notification routing:

1. Add **Ownership Tags** (environment, service, team) to your infrastructure. These tags determine which routers match Case notifications.
1. Create or open a router with routing labels that match the Ownership Tags on your Cases.
1. Select the **Cases** tab in the router and add a routing rule.
1. Configure notification triggers--select which Case lifecycle events (Activated, Acknowledged, Resolved, Closed, Priority changed, Assignee changed) generate notifications.
1. Select a connector and preset as the destination.

For the full walkthrough, see [Set up Cases](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/cases/quick-start/index.md) and [Route Case notifications](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/notification-center/routing/create-router/#route-case-notifications).

## Next steps

Learn how Notification Center uses alerts and Cases as notification sources in [Entity types](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/notification-center/entity-types/introduction/index.md).