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---
title: "Alarm Pipeline — Groups, Areas, and Items"
tags: [alarm, alarms, alert, notification, group, area, limit, digital, pipeline, monitoring]
description: "Configure a complete alarm system: groups for severity, areas for organization, items for individual tag monitoring with limit and digital alarm types"
version: "1.0"
author: "Tatsoft"
---

Set up a complete alarm system from scratch: Groups for severity classification, Areas for plant organization, and Items for individual tag monitoring with limit-based and digital alarm types.

What This Skill Does

Set up a complete alarm system from scratch. Alarms watch tag values and trigger notifications when conditions are met. The pipeline is: Groups (severity/behavior) → Areas (organization) → Items (individual monitors).

AlarmsGroups (severity, colors, sounds)
    ??? AlarmsAreas (plant hierarchy — optional)
         ??? AlarmsItems (one per tag condition)
              ??? Watches UnsTags values at runtime

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

The user wants to add alarms or alerts to a solution
The user mentions "alarm", "alert", "notification", "limit", "out of range"
The user wants to monitor tags for abnormal conditions
Building on top of an existing solution that has tags but no alarms

Do NOT use this skill when:

The user wants ML-based anomaly detection (use skill-edge-ml-pipeline)
The user only needs to view existing alarms (use designer_action('navigate', 'AlarmsMonitor'))

Prerequisites

Solution must have tags (UnsTags) configured
Tags should have realistic values (simulator or real device)

MCP Tools and Tables Involved

Category	Items
Tools	`get_table_schema`, `write_objects`, `get_objects`
Tables	`AlarmsGroups`, `AlarmsAreas`, `AlarmsItems`

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Create Alarm Groups

Groups define severity levels and shared behavior. Create at least Critical, Warning, and Info.

get_table_schema('AlarmsGroups')

{
  "table_type": "AlarmsGroups",
  "data": [
    {
      "Name": "Critical",
      "Description": "Immediate action required — safety or equipment risk"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Warning",
      "Description": "Attention needed — process approaching limits"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Info",
      "Description": "Informational — logged but no immediate action"
    }
  ]
}

Key decisions:

Group names should reflect severity, not equipment (alarms from any area can belong to "Critical")
Keep the number of groups small (3-5). More granularity comes from Areas.

Step 2: Create Alarm Areas (Optional)

Areas organize alarms by plant location or process unit. They can be nested. Skip this step for simple solutions.

get_table_schema('AlarmsAreas')

{
  "table_type": "AlarmsAreas",
  "data": [
    {
      "Name": "Plant",
      "Description": "Entire plant"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Plant/Reactor1",
      "Description": "Reactor 1 process area"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Plant/Utilities",
      "Description": "Utility systems"
    }
  ]
}

Key decision: Area paths mirror the tag folder structure for consistency. Plant/Reactor1 area contains alarms for Plant/Reactor1/* tags.

Step 3: Create Alarm Items

Each item monitors one tag for one condition. The two main types are Limit (analog thresholds) and Digital (boolean state).

get_table_schema('AlarmsItems')

Limit alarms — trigger when a value exceeds a threshold:

{
  "table_type": "AlarmsItems",
  "data": [
    {
      "Name": "Reactor1_TempHigh",
      "Group": "Critical",
      "TagName": "Plant/Reactor1/Temperature",
      "Type": "HighLimit",
      "Limit": 90.0,
      "Description": "Reactor 1 temperature exceeded 90°C"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Reactor1_TempWarn",
      "Group": "Warning",
      "TagName": "Plant/Reactor1/Temperature",
      "Type": "HighLimit",
      "Limit": 75.0,
      "Description": "Reactor 1 temperature approaching limit (75°C)"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Reactor1_PressureHigh",
      "Group": "Critical",
      "TagName": "Plant/Reactor1/Pressure",
      "Type": "HighLimit",
      "Limit": 4.5,
      "Description": "Reactor 1 pressure exceeded 4.5 bar"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Reactor1_LevelLow",
      "Group": "Warning",
      "TagName": "Plant/Reactor1/Level",
      "Type": "LowLimit",
      "Limit": 10.0,
      "Description": "Reactor 1 level below 10%"
    }
  ]
}

Digital alarms — trigger on a boolean tag:

{
  "table_type": "AlarmsItems",
  "data": [
    {
      "Name": "Reactor1_AnomalyDetected",
      "Group": "Warning",
      "TagName": "Plant/Reactor1/ML/IsAnomaly",
      "Type": "Digital",
      "Description": "ML model detected anomaly on Reactor 1"
    }
  ]
}

Key decisions:

One alarm item per condition. A tag can have multiple alarms (high-warn at 75, high-critical at 90).
Type values: HighLimit, LowLimit, HighHighLimit, LowLowLimit, Digital. Always verify with get_table_schema.
Limit is required for limit-type alarms, ignored for digital alarms.
The Name should be descriptive and unique across all alarm items.

Step 4: Verify Configuration

get_objects('AlarmsGroups')
get_objects('AlarmsItems')

Then start or hot-reload runtime:

designer_action('hot_reload')

Verification

get_objects('AlarmsGroups') — confirm groups exist (Critical, Warning, Info)
get_objects('AlarmsItems') — confirm all alarm items are configured
get_designer_state() — no errors
Start runtime → navigate to AlarmsMonitor → verify alarms trigger when thresholds are crossed
browse_namespace('Alarm.Group.Critical') — check alarm counts at runtime

Common Pitfalls

Mistake	Why It Happens	How to Avoid
Wrong Type string	Guessing enum values instead of checking schema	Always use exact values from `get_table_schema('AlarmsItems')`
Missing TagName	Referencing a tag that doesn't exist yet	Create the tag first in UnsTags before creating the alarm
Limit on Digital alarm	Setting Limit on a Digital type	Digital alarms ignore Limit — they trigger when boolean tag becomes true
Duplicate alarm names	Alarm names must be globally unique	Names are unique across the entire solution, not just within a group
Missing Area assignment	Alarms created without area linkage	Check schema for the exact property name to assign an area

Related Skills

skill-getting-started — Create tags and simulator (prerequisite)
skill-edge-ml-pipeline — Add ML-based anomaly detection that feeds into alarms
skill-historian-configuration — Log alarm history for analysis