Create your own Signal Templates
The bundled Signal Templates that ship with OKRsignal cover common monitoring scenarios, but you need to specify who will receive notifications and escalations.
It is common to have multiple OKRs which you want to instrument with the same Signals and same notification and escalation recipients. OKRsignal allows you to add fully configured Signals to the Signal Template Library. You can add your Signal Templates to either the Project or Organization section of the Template Library.
These Project Signal Templates are scoped to a single ADO Project and can be used only within that project. Organization Signal Templates are shared across your entire ADO organization.
Project and Organization Signal Templates make it practical to enforce consistent monitoring standards for a single project or across your entire organization — for example, ensuring that every OKR in an organization uses the same escalation thresholds and notifies the same leadership chain.
Template scope: Project vs. Organization
| Scope | Who can use it | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Any OKRsignal widget within the same ADO project | Team-specific monitoring patterns — for example, a cadence or escalation path that applies to one team's OKRs but not the whole organization |
| Organization | Any OKRsignal widget across all ADO projects in the organization | Portfolio-wide standards — for example, a mandatory escalation Signal that all OKR owners are expected to configure |
How custom templates differ from the bundled Template Library
The bundled templates in the Template Library are provided by OKRsignal and cannot be edited. They are designed to be a starting point that works for most teams without any prior configuration. Custom Project and Organization templates, by contrast:
- Are created and maintained by your team
- Can include pre-filled notification thresholds, escalation paths, and specific recipients that reflect your team's actual agreements
- Can be updated over time as your monitoring standards evolve
- Appear in the Template Library alongside the bundled templates, in their own Project or Organization tab
Tip
Before creating a custom template, use the bundled templates to get started. Customize the rules on a real OKR first, then save that working configuration as a template once you are confident it is set up the way you want.
Create a custom template
Edit mode required
You must be in edit mode to create or modify Signal Templates. Click the Edit button on the OKRsignal widget to enter edit mode.
Open the Signals tab
In edit mode, click the Signals tab. Open an existing Signal you want to use as the basis for a template, or create a new Signal with the rules you want to capture.
Save the Signal as a template
With the Signal open in the rule editor, click Save as template. Enter a descriptive name and an optional description that explains the monitoring scenario the template covers. The name and description appear in the Template Library, so choose wording that helps other OKR owners understand when to use it.
Choose the template scope
Select whether the template should be available to the current Project only, or to the entire Organization. You can change this later by editing the template.
Save the template
Click Save. The template is now available in the Template Library for any OKRsignal widget within the scope you selected.
Import a custom template into an OKRsignal widget
Open the Template Library
On the OKRsignal widget where you want to add a Signal, click the Signals tab in edit mode, then click Create Signal from template.
Browse custom templates
In the Template Library, switch to the Project or Organization tab to see the custom templates available for your context. Bundled templates appear on the Library tab.
Select and import
Select the template or templates you want to import and click Create Signals. The Signals are created on this OKRsignal widget using the rule structure from the template. Any rule fields that are specific to the OKR — for example, notification recipients or escalation thresholds — will be marked for configuration.
Configure and enable
Complete any fields marked as needing configuration, then enable the Signal and its rules. See Step 3: Customize rules in the Start with Signal Templates guide for instructions on completing this process.