# Alert on Critical Failure

> A technique for raising an alert with an owner and a severity when a critical path fails.

Record: `lexicon:alert-on-critical-failure`
Kind: technique
Layer: [Observability](https://banes-lab.com/records/layer/observability.md)
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/ontology/lexicon#lexicon-alert-on-critical-failure

Listed in [Lexicon terms](https://banes-lab.com/api/records/lexicon.md), after [Trace Span](https://banes-lab.com/records/lexicon/trace-span.md) and before [Cardinality Reduction](https://banes-lab.com/records/lexicon/cardinality-reduction.md).

## Category

- [Observability / Auditability / Traceability](https://banes-lab.com/records/lexicon-category/observability-auditability-traceability.md)

## Refactors

- [Unobservable Failure](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/unobservable-failure.md)
- [Log-as-Control-Flow](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/log-as-control-flow.md)
- [Alerting](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/alerting.md)

## Linked from

- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-anti-patterns.md)
- [Observability / Auditability / Traceability](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-observability-auditability-traceability.md)