PagerDuty Automation via Rube MCP

Automate PagerDuty incident management and operations through Composio’s PagerDuty toolkit via Rube MCP.

Prerequisites

• Rube MCP must be connected (RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS available)
• Active PagerDuty connection via RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit pagerduty
• Always call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS first to get current tool schemas

Setup

Get Rube MCP: Add https://rube.app/mcp as an MCP server in your client configuration. No API keys needed — just add the endpoint and it works.

1. Verify Rube MCP is available by confirming RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS responds
2. Call RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit pagerduty
3. If connection is not ACTIVE, follow the returned auth link to complete PagerDuty authentication
4. Confirm connection status shows ACTIVE before running any workflows

Core Workflows

1. Manage Incidents

When to use: User wants to create, update, acknowledge, or resolve incidents

Tool sequence:

1. PAGERDUTY_FETCH_INCIDENT_LIST – List incidents with filters [Required]
2. PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_INCIDENT_BY_INCIDENT_ID – Get specific incident details [Optional]
3. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_INCIDENT_RECORD – Create a new incident [Optional]
4. PAGERDUTY_UPDATE_INCIDENT_BY_ID – Update incident status or assignment [Optional]
5. PAGERDUTY_POST_INCIDENT_NOTE_USING_ID – Add a note to an incident [Optional]
6. PAGERDUTY_SNOOZE_INCIDENT_BY_DURATION – Snooze an incident for a period [Optional]

Key parameters:

• statuses[]: Filter by status (‘triggered’, ‘acknowledged’, ‘resolved’)
• service_ids[]: Filter by service IDs
• urgencies[]: Filter by urgency (‘high’, ‘low’)
• title: Incident title (for creation)
• service: Service object with id and type (for creation)
• status: New status for update operations

Pitfalls:

• Incident creation requires a service object with both id and type: 'service_reference'
• Status transitions follow: triggered -> acknowledged -> resolved
• Cannot transition from resolved back to triggered directly
• PAGERDUTY_UPDATE_INCIDENT_BY_ID requires the incident ID as a path parameter
• Snooze duration is in seconds; the incident re-triggers after the snooze period

2. Inspect Incident Alerts and Analytics

When to use: User wants to review alerts within an incident or analyze incident metrics

Tool sequence:

1. PAGERDUTY_GET_ALERTS_BY_INCIDENT_ID – List alerts for an incident [Required]
2. PAGERDUTY_GET_INCIDENT_ALERT_DETAILS – Get details of a specific alert [Optional]
3. PAGERDUTY_FETCH_INCIDENT_ANALYTICS_BY_ID – Get incident analytics/metrics [Optional]

Key parameters:

• incident_id: The incident ID
• alert_id: Specific alert ID within the incident
• statuses[]: Filter alerts by status

Pitfalls:

• An incident can have multiple alerts; each alert has its own status
• Alert IDs are scoped to the incident
• Analytics data includes response times, engagement metrics, and resolution times

3. Manage Services

When to use: User wants to create, update, or list services

Tool sequence:

1. PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_LIST_OF_SERVICES – List all services [Required]
2. PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_SERVICE_BY_ID – Get service details [Optional]
3. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_NEW_SERVICE – Create a new technical service [Optional]
4. PAGERDUTY_UPDATE_SERVICE_BY_ID – Update service configuration [Optional]
5. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_INTEGRATION_FOR_SERVICE – Add an integration to a service [Optional]
6. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_BUSINESS_SERVICE – Create a business service [Optional]
7. PAGERDUTY_UPDATE_BUSINESS_SERVICE_BY_ID – Update a business service [Optional]

Key parameters:

• name: Service name
• escalation_policy: Escalation policy object with id and type
• alert_creation: Alert creation mode (‘create_alerts_and_incidents’ or ‘create_incidents’)
• status: Service status (‘active’, ‘warning’, ‘critical’, ‘maintenance’, ‘disabled’)

Pitfalls:

• Creating a service requires an existing escalation policy
• Business services are different from technical services; they represent business-level groupings
• Service integrations define how alerts are created (email, API, events)
• Disabling a service stops all incident creation for that service

4. Manage Schedules and On-Call

When to use: User wants to view or manage on-call schedules and rotations

Tool sequence:

1. PAGERDUTY_GET_SCHEDULES – List all schedules [Required]
2. PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_SCHEDULE_BY_ID – Get specific schedule details [Optional]
3. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_NEW_SCHEDULE_LAYER – Create a new schedule [Optional]
4. PAGERDUTY_UPDATE_SCHEDULE_BY_ID – Update an existing schedule [Optional]
5. PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_ONCALL_LIST – View who is currently on-call [Optional]
6. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_SCHEDULE_OVERRIDES_CONFIGURATION – Create temporary overrides [Optional]
7. PAGERDUTY_DELETE_SCHEDULE_OVERRIDE_BY_ID – Remove an override [Optional]
8. PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_USERS_BY_SCHEDULE_ID – List users in a schedule [Optional]
9. PAGERDUTY_PREVIEW_SCHEDULE_OBJECT – Preview schedule changes before saving [Optional]

Key parameters:

• schedule_id: Schedule identifier
• time_zone: Schedule timezone (e.g., ‘America/New_York’)
• schedule_layers: Array of rotation layer configurations
• since/until: Date range for on-call queries (ISO 8601)
• override: Override object with user, start, and end times

Pitfalls:

• Schedule layers define rotation order; multiple layers can overlap
• Overrides are temporary and take precedence over the normal schedule
• since and until are required for on-call queries to scope the time range
• Time zones must be valid IANA timezone strings
• Preview before saving complex schedule changes to verify correctness

5. Manage Escalation Policies

When to use: User wants to create or modify escalation policies

Tool sequence:

1. PAGERDUTY_FETCH_ESCALATION_POLICES_LIST – List all escalation policies [Required]
2. PAGERDUTY_GET_ESCALATION_POLICY_BY_ID – Get policy details [Optional]
3. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_ESCALATION_POLICY – Create a new policy [Optional]
4. PAGERDUTY_UPDATE_ESCALATION_POLICY_BY_ID – Update an existing policy [Optional]
5. PAGERDUTY_AUDIT_ESCALATION_POLICY_RECORDS – View audit trail for a policy [Optional]

Key parameters:

• name: Policy name
• escalation_rules: Array of escalation rule objects
• num_loops: Number of times to loop through rules before stopping (0 = no loop)
• escalation_delay_in_minutes: Delay between escalation levels

Pitfalls:

• Each escalation rule requires at least one target (user, schedule, or team)
• escalation_delay_in_minutes defines how long before escalating to the next level
• Setting num_loops to 0 means the policy runs once and stops
• Deleting a policy fails if services still reference it

6. Manage Teams

When to use: User wants to create or manage PagerDuty teams

Tool sequence:

1. PAGERDUTY_CREATE_NEW_TEAM_WITH_DETAILS – Create a new team [Required]

Key parameters:

• name: Team name
• description: Team description

Pitfalls:

• Team names must be unique within the account
• Teams are used to scope services, escalation policies, and schedules

Common Patterns

ID Resolution

Service name -> Service ID:

1. Call PAGERDUTY_RETRIEVE_LIST_OF_SERVICES
2. Find service by name in response
3. Extract id field

Schedule name -> Schedule ID:

1. Call PAGERDUTY_GET_SCHEDULES
2. Find schedule by name in response
3. Extract id field

Incident Lifecycle

1. Incident triggered (via API, integration, or manual creation)
2. On-call user notified per escalation policy
3. User acknowledges -> status: 'acknowledged'
4. User resolves -> status: 'resolved'

Pagination

• PagerDuty uses offset-based pagination
• Check response for more boolean field
• Use offset and limit parameters
• Continue until more is false

Known Pitfalls

ID Formats:

• All PagerDuty IDs are alphanumeric strings (e.g., ‘P1234AB’)
• Service references require type: 'service_reference'
• User references require type: 'user_reference'

Status Transitions:

• Incidents: triggered -> acknowledged -> resolved (forward only)
• Services: active, warning, critical, maintenance, disabled

Rate Limits:

• PagerDuty API enforces rate limits per account
• Implement exponential backoff on 429 responses
• Bulk operations should be spaced out

Response Parsing:

• Response data may be nested under data or data.data
• Parse defensively with fallback patterns
• Pagination uses offset/limit/more pattern

Quick Reference