Use Cases & Examples

Real-world examples of how to use Dashtray

Development & DevOps

GitHub Build Notifications

Get alerted when builds pass or fail.

Setup:

1. Go to GitHub repo → Settings → Webhooks
2. Add webhook to your Dashtray URL
3. Select: Workflow runs, Push, Pull requests
4. Configure template

Notification examples:

✅ Build passed
main branch - all checks passed

❌ Build failed
feature/auth - 3 tests failing

🚀 Deployed to production
v1.2.3 → 42 commits

Deployment Tracking

Monitor deployments across your infrastructure.

Template:

Title: "🚀 {{environment}} deployment"
Body: "{{service}}: {{old_version}} → {{new_version}}"

Real example:

🚀 production deployment
api: v1.2.3 → v1.2.4

Error Monitoring

Get notified when error rates spike.

Setup with error tracking tool (Sentry, Rollbar, etc.):

1. Create webhook in error tracking dashboard
2. Set alert threshold
3. Configure to send to Dashtray

Notification:

⚠️ Error spike detected
500+ errors in last 5 minutes

---

E-commerce

New Orders

Get notified instantly when customers order.

Shopify setup:

1. Settings → Notifications → Webhooks
2. Add webhook: orders/create
3. Point to your Dashtray URL

Notification:

📦 New order from Alice Smith
Order #1234 - $99.00

Payment Received

Track revenue in real-time.

Stripe setup:

1. Developers → Webhooks
2. Events: charge.succeeded
3. Send to Dashtray

Notification:

💳 Payment received
$599.00 from [e-mail]

Low Stock Alert

Get notified when inventory runs low.

Using Zapier:

1. Trigger: Shopify inventory < 10
2. Action: POST to Dashtray webhook
3. Template: Show product name and quantity

Notification:

⚠️ Low inventory
Product: Blue T-Shirt (Size M)
Remaining: 3 units

Customer Signup

Track new customer registrations.

Notification:

👤 New customer signed up
John Doe - [e-mail]

---

SaaS & Subscriptions

Trial Ending Soon

Remind about expiring trials.

Dashtray setup:

1. Send from your backend
2. Trigger 3 days before expiration
3. Include upgrade link

Notification:

⏰ Trial expiring soon
3 days left - upgrade now

Subscription Changed

Track plan upgrades and downgrades.

Notification:

📈 Plan upgraded
Starter → Pro

Failed Payment

Alert when payment fails.

Notification:

❌ Payment failed
Subscription at risk - update payment method

Usage Alert

Notify when approaching limits.

Notification:

📊 Approaching API limit
1,850 / 2,000 requests used

---

Content & Publishing

New Comment/Review

Get notified of user engagement.

Setup with comment service (Disqus, etc.):

1. Create webhook
2. Events: New comment
3. Point to Dashtray

Notification:

💬 New comment on "Getting Started"
From: Alex - "Great guide, thanks!"

Social Media Mention

Monitor brand mentions.

Using IFTTT or Zapier:

1. Trigger: Mentioned on Twitter
2. Action: Send to Dashtray

Notification:

🐦 Mentioned on Twitter
@someone: "Just launched with @dashtray - amazing!"

Content Published

Notify when content goes live.

CMS webhook setup:

1. Trigger: Article published
2. Send to Dashtray

Notification:

📝 New blog post published
"5 Tips for Better Notifications"

---

Monitoring & Observability

Server Down Alert

Critical alert when server fails.

Monitoring tool (UptimeRobot, Pingdom, etc.):

1. Configure webhook for downtime alert
2. Point to Dashtray URL

Notification:

🔴 Server down
api.example.com - HTTP 503
Last up: 2 minutes ago

Performance Degradation

Alert on slow responses.

Notification:

⚠️ Performance issue
API response time: 5.2s (normally 200ms)

Database Backup Complete

Confirm backups succeeded.

Notification:

✅ Database backup complete
Size: 2.3 GB
Time: 4 minutes 23 seconds

---

Personal & Team Productivity

Code Review Requested

Get notified of pull requests waiting for review.

GitHub + integration:

1. PR opened → Dashtray notification
2. Assign reviewer automatically

Notification:

👀 Code review requested
PR #245: Add user authentication
From: @sarah

Meeting Reminder

Get alerted before important meetings.

Calendar integration:

1. Set 15 minutes before
2. Send to Dashtray

Notification:

📅 Meeting in 15 minutes
Team Standup - #general Slack

Daily Summary

Get digest of important events.

Custom backend job:

1. Runs at 9 AM
2. Aggregates yesterday’s events
3. Sends summary

Notification:

📊 Yesterday's Summary
5 new orders - $1,200
3 support tickets
1 deployment - all green

---

AI & Automation

Workflow Completed

Notify when long-running workflows finish.

From Claude, Zapier, or custom bot:

Notification:

✅ Data pipeline completed
Processed 1M records in 23 minutes

Research Finished

Alert when data analysis completes.

Notification:

📈 Analysis ready
Quarterly report generated
Ready to review in dashboard

Approval Needed

Request human input in workflow.

Notification:

⚠️ Approval needed
Large order: $50,000 from CompanyXYZ
Review and approve?

---

Example Code Snippets

Send Custom Notification (Any App)

curl -X POST https://api.dashtray.app/api/v1/notifications/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_test_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Custom Event",
    "body": "Something interesting happened"
  }'

From Python

import requests

def send_notification(title, body):
    response = requests.post(
        'https://api.dashtray.app/api/v1/notifications/send',
        headers={
            'Authorization': f'Bearer {API_KEY}',
            'Content-Type': 'application/json'
        },
        json={
            'title': title,
            'body': body
        }
    )
    return response.json()

# Usage
send_notification(
    title="Deploy successful",
    description="v1.2.3 deployed to production"
)

From Node.js

async function sendNotification(title, description) {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.dashtray.app/api/v1/notifications/send', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DASHTRAY_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      title,
      description
    })
  });
  return response.json();
}

// Usage
await sendNotification(
  "Build passed",
  "All 42 tests passing in 3.2s"
);

From GitHub Actions

- name: Send notification
  uses: dashtray/notify@v1
  with:
    api-key: ${{ secrets.DASHTRAY_API_KEY }}
    title: "Build completed"
    description: "Status: ${{ job.status }}"

---

Combining Multiple Services

Complete Order Workflow

Order placed on Shopify
  ↓ (webhook)
Dashtray notification: "New order"
  ↓
Inventory updated in database
  ↓ (webhook)
Dashtray notification: "Stock updated"
  ↓
Notification sent via email
  ↓ (webhook)
Dashtray notification: "Customer notified"

CI/CD Pipeline

Code pushed to GitHub
  ↓ (webhook)
Build starts - Dashtray: "Build started"
  ↓
Tests run, linting, build
  ↓
Success - Dashtray: "✅ Build passed"
  ↓
Deploy to staging
  ↓
Deploy to production - Dashtray: "🚀 Live"

---

Tips for Success

✅ Do:

• Start simple, then expand
• Test with real data
• Use descriptive titles
• Include action items when needed
• Batch related notifications

❌ Avoid:

• Notification overload (get silence after 5 minutes)
• Vague titles (“Event happened”)
• Notifications for everything
• Duplicating data in title and body

---

What Will You Build?

Got a great use case? Share it on GitHub!

Browse more examples in our community.