Notifications / Digests and delivery

Use summaries, caps, and quiet hours to reduce interruption.

Use Digest summaries when the user wants scheduled email. Use Delivery limits when immediate mail should be capped or paused.

Digest summaries

Digest settings control scheduled summaries.

ControlMeaning
Digest frequencyNo digest disables scheduled summaries. Daily sends one project summary each day. Weekly sends one summary for the week.
Digest send hourThe local hour when digest emails may send. Pick a time when the recipient normally reviews project health.
Email schedule time zoneThe time zone used for digest hour and quiet hours. This matters for distributed teams because 9 AM depends on the selected zone.

Weekly digests are evaluated on Monday in the selected time zone.

Delivery limits

Delivery settings control immediate mail.

ControlMeaning
Hourly immediate email limitMaximum immediate emails per notification type each hour. Use this to prevent a noisy project from flooding one inbox. 0 blocks immediate emails.
Quiet hoursPause immediate emails between the selected local hours. Use this for overnight or focus-time suppression.

Quiet hours do not suppress digest emails; digests use their own schedule. If someone still gets a digest during quiet hours, check the digest send hour instead of the quiet-hours fields.

Verify

Test digests and immediate mail separately.

  1. For immediate mail, enable one error triage or workflow alert, set the hourly cap above 0, make sure the current time is outside quiet hours, then trigger that exact alert.
  2. For daily or weekly digests, confirm the digest frequency, send hour, and time zone, then wait for the next scheduled digest window with Sidekiq running.
  3. Check the user's inbox and spam folder, then check Rails and worker logs for Action Mailer delivery around the expected time.

Troubleshooting

Caps and schedules explain most surprises.

SymptomWhat to check
No immediate email arrivesHourly limit may be 0, the user may be inside quiet hours, or the triggering alert path may be disabled.
Digest does not arriveDigest frequency may be No digest, the send hour may not have arrived in the selected time zone, or the worker may not be running.
Email arrives during quiet hoursQuiet hours only pause immediate mail. Check digest schedule separately.
Only some notification types arriveHourly limits apply per notification type, so one noisy path can be capped while another still sends.

Use notification setup requirements when the schedule looks right but delivery still fails.