> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ilert.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ilert.com/incidents-and-status-pages/incidents/incident-timeline-and-comments.md).

# Incident timeline and comments

The incident timeline is the running record of everything that happened during an [incident](/incidents-and-status-pages/incidents.md). It is internal to your response team and is the foundation for a post-mortem once the incident is over.

## The incident timeline

The timeline is an append-only log shown in the incident view. ilert records key events automatically, including:

* the incident being declared,
* changes to severity and status,
* responders joining the incident,
* alerts being linked or unlinked,
* status updates being posted,
* an incident channel being attached.

Entries appear in chronological order, so anyone joining the incident can catch up quickly.

## Comments

Comments are notes you write onto the timeline yourself. Use them to capture anything that helps coordinate the response or prepare the post-mortem:

* investigation findings ("Connection pool exhausted on db-primary-1"),
* decisions and their reasoning ("Rolling back instead of hotfixing because…"),
* handoff context when responsibility moves between people or regions.

To add a comment, type into the **Add comment to timeline** field in the incident view and send it. Comments are interleaved with automatic entries in chronological order.

{% hint style="info" %}
If the incident has an [incident channel](/incidents-and-status-pages/incidents/incident-channels.md), comments are kept in sync with that channel so the conversation and the timeline stay together.
{% endhint %}

## Communicating publicly with status updates

The incident timeline is **internal**. To communicate with customers, post a [status update](/incidents-and-status-pages/status-updates.md) from the incident by clicking **Post status update**.

A status update is a separate, public-facing message published to your [status pages](/incidents-and-status-pages/status-pages.md). Posting one is always a deliberate action—the incident's internal title, summary, severity, and timeline are never exposed. When you post a status update, the timeline records that it happened, but the public wording lives only on the status update itself.

See [Status updates](/incidents-and-status-pages/status-updates.md) for the full walkthrough of posting and resolving them.


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