FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Section titled “Frequently Asked Questions”Answers to common questions about the Overwatch platform. If your question is not covered here, contact support@overwatch-observability.com.
Platform and Integrations
Section titled “Platform and Integrations”What monitoring platforms does Overwatch support?
Section titled “What monitoring platforms does Overwatch support?”Overwatch supports inbound webhook integrations with the following platforms:
- Datadog — alerts, monitors, and events
- PagerDuty — incident and alert webhooks
- Prometheus / Alertmanager — firing and resolved alerts
- Grafana — unified alerting webhooks
- New Relic — alert policies and conditions
- Amazon CloudWatch — SNS-delivered alarm notifications
- Elasticsearch — Watcher alerts
- SigNoz — alert rule notifications
Each platform has a dedicated alert parser that normalizes incoming payloads into Overwatch’s standard alert format. You can configure integrations from the Settings > Integrations page or through the REST API.
How do I connect a monitoring platform?
Section titled “How do I connect a monitoring platform?”- Navigate to Settings > Integrations in the Overwatch dashboard.
- Select the platform you want to connect.
- Overwatch generates a unique webhook URL for that integration (for example,
https://<your-instance>/api/v1/webhooks/datadog). - Copy the webhook URL and paste it into your monitoring platform’s notification or webhook configuration.
- Send a test alert from the monitoring platform to verify the connection.
For platform-specific setup instructions, see the Integrations section of the documentation.
Chrome Extension
Section titled “Chrome Extension”Is the Chrome extension required?
Section titled “Is the Chrome extension required?”No. The Chrome extension is an optional productivity tool. You can use the full Overwatch web dashboard at https://<your-instance>/dashboard without installing the extension. The extension provides a convenient side panel overlay when working inside monitoring platforms like Datadog, but it is not required for any core functionality.
Can I use Overwatch without the Chrome extension?
Section titled “Can I use Overwatch without the Chrome extension?”Yes. Every feature available in the Chrome extension — AI chat, incident search, on-demand reporting — is also accessible through the web dashboard. The extension simply surfaces these features in a side panel while you are working in another tab.
What browsers are supported?
Section titled “What browsers are supported?”- Chrome extension: Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers (Microsoft Edge, Brave, Arc) version 116 or later (Side Panel API required).
- Web dashboard: Any modern browser that supports ES2020 — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Helper CLI
Section titled “Helper CLI”What is the Helper CLI and is it required?
Section titled “What is the Helper CLI and is it required?”The Helper CLI is an optional, lightweight binary that you install on your local machine. It establishes a secure WebSocket connection to the Overwatch backend and allows the AI chat assistant to execute approved commands in your local terminal environment (for example, running kubectl get pods or docker logs).
The Helper CLI is not required. Without it, the AI chat assistant can still analyze incidents, suggest resolution steps, and search the knowledge base. It simply cannot execute commands on your machine.
What commands can the Helper CLI execute?
Section titled “What commands can the Helper CLI execute?”The Helper CLI executes only commands that you approve. When the AI assistant determines that a local command would help diagnose or resolve an issue, it sends the command to the Helper CLI, which presents it to you for confirmation before execution. Common examples include:
- Kubernetes operations (
kubectl get,kubectl describe,kubectl logs) - Docker inspection (
docker ps,docker logs) - Network diagnostics (
curl,dig,ping) - Log file searches (
grep,tail) - Cloud CLI queries (
aws,gcloud,az)
The Helper CLI runs under your local user permissions. It does not elevate privileges or bypass your system’s access controls.
AI and LLM Features
Section titled “AI and LLM Features”What AI models does Overwatch use?
Section titled “What AI models does Overwatch use?”Overwatch uses multiple LLM models hosted through AWS Bedrock. The platform automatically selects the appropriate model based on query complexity:
| Tier | Model | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Fast | Amazon Nova Micro | Simple lookups, status checks, and formatting |
| Standard | Claude Haiku | Moderate analysis, search summarization, and chat responses |
| Advanced | Claude Sonnet | In-depth incident analysis and root cause investigation |
| Expert | Claude Opus | Multi-service correlation and complex architectural reasoning |
This tiered approach keeps costs low for simple queries while ensuring that complex problems receive thorough analysis.
How does AI cost optimization work?
Section titled “How does AI cost optimization work?”Overwatch minimizes LLM spending through three mechanisms:
- Tiered model routing — Each query is scored for complexity. Simple queries are handled by smaller, less expensive models. Only genuinely complex analysis escalates to the larger (and more costly) tiers.
- Semantic caching — When a new query is semantically similar to a previously answered query, the cached response is returned without calling the LLM. This eliminates redundant inference costs.
- Organization-level quotas — Administrators can set monthly AI usage limits per organization. When the quota is approaching its ceiling, the system alerts the admin and can restrict usage to lower-cost tiers.
How do I manage AI costs?
Section titled “How do I manage AI costs?”Administrators can monitor and control AI costs from the Settings > LLM Cost Management page. Available controls include:
- Viewing per-model token consumption and estimated spend for the current billing period.
- Setting a monthly AI budget ceiling. When the ceiling is reached, the system restricts queries to the lowest-cost model tier or pauses AI features entirely (configurable).
- Reviewing the cache hit rate. A high cache hit rate means fewer LLM calls and lower costs.
How does semantic caching work?
Section titled “How does semantic caching work?”When a user submits a query, Overwatch converts it into a vector embedding and compares it against previously cached query-response pairs. If a match is found above the similarity threshold (configurable, default 0.92), the cached response is returned immediately. This avoids a round-trip to the LLM, reducing both latency and cost.
Cached entries have a configurable TTL (time-to-live). When the TTL expires, the next similar query triggers a fresh LLM call, and the cache is updated with the new response.
Data and Security
Section titled “Data and Security”Is my data shared between organizations?
Section titled “Is my data shared between organizations?”No. Overwatch uses a multi-tenant architecture with strict data isolation. Every database query is automatically scoped to the requesting user’s organization through middleware. This applies to incidents, procedures, integrations, analytics, and vector search results. Users in one organization cannot view, search, or access data belonging to another organization.
Vector search is also isolated. Each organization has its own namespace in the Weaviate vector database, ensuring that semantic search results never leak across organizational boundaries.
Search
Section titled “Search”How does semantic search differ from keyword search?
Section titled “How does semantic search differ from keyword search?”Traditional keyword search returns results only when exact terms match. Semantic search converts both the query and stored documents into mathematical vector representations (embeddings) and finds results based on conceptual similarity. This means:
- A search for “database connection timeout” also returns results about “DB pool exhaustion” and “PostgreSQL max_connections reached.”
- A search for “deployment failure rollback” matches procedures titled “Revert production release.”
- Misspellings and phrasing variations are handled gracefully.
Overwatch supports hybrid search, which combines both vector similarity and keyword filtering, so you get the precision of exact matches alongside the recall of semantic understanding.
Account and Access
Section titled “Account and Access”What roles are available?
Section titled “What roles are available?”Overwatch provides the following built-in roles:
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Owner | Full administrative access, including billing and organization deletion |
| Admin | User management, integration configuration, and all operational permissions |
| Engineer | Create and manage incidents, execute procedures, use AI features |
| Viewer | Read-only access to incidents, procedures, and analytics |
Permissions follow a resource:action format (for example, incidents:create or procedures:execute). API keys can be scoped to any subset of these permissions.
How do I reset my password?
Section titled “How do I reset my password?”- Navigate to the login page and select “Forgot password.”
- Enter the email address associated with your account.
- Check your inbox for a password reset link (valid for 1 hour).
- Follow the link and set a new password.
If you are already logged in, you can change your password from Settings > Profile > Change Password. Changing your password revokes all active sessions, requiring you to log in again on all devices.