Key Concepts
Master the fundamental terms and ideas that power CommHero.
Incident
A coordinated communication response to a specific event. An incident bundles templates, channels, audiences, and execution history so you can track everything that was communicated about a specific situation.
Example: "Database Outage - May 14, 2024"
Template
A pre-written, pre-approved message that you reuse across multiple incidents. Templates can include variables for dynamic content and support multiple channels (Slack, Email, Teams, SMS, etc.).
Example: "API Outage - Customer Notification"
Channel
A communication platform where you send messages. CommHero supports: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Email, SMS, and custom webhooks.
Example: "Internal Slack #alerts channel"
Audience
A group of recipients who should receive messages. Audiences can be defined by role, team, or custom criteria. One incident can target multiple audiences with different templates.
Example: "Customer Support Team" or "Executive Leadership"
Connection
A secure integration with an external service (Slack workspace, Gmail account, Teams organization, etc.). Connections store credentials and configuration for sending messages.
Example: "Slack workspace @yourcompany"
Approval Workflow
An optional process where sensitive messages require review before sending. Useful for customer communications or executive updates that need compliance check before deployment.
Example: "All customer emails require approval from Legal"
Subscription Tier
Your CommHero plan level (Free, Team, Business, Enterprise). Each tier includes different features, user limits, and capabilities.
Example: "Team tier includes unlimited incidents and API access"
RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)
A permission system with three roles: Observer (read-only), Operator (create/execute), and Admin (full control). Ensures the right people can do the right things.
Example: "Operators can create incidents, Observers can view them"
Audit Trail
A complete log of every action taken in CommHero: who created templates, who executed incidents, who made changes, timestamps, and content. Required for compliance and post-mortems.
Example: "Message sent to 342 customers on May 14 at 15:23 UTC"
Mental Model
Think of CommHero like this: You have Templates (messages) that get executed during Incidents to reach Audiences through Channels. All actions are logged in your Audit Trail for compliance and learning.