---
title: Health indicators
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/pathpoint/health-indicators
---

> #### 💡 PREVIEW
>
> We're still working on this feature, but we'd love for you to try it out!
>
> This feature is currently provided as part of a preview program pursuant to our [pre-release policies](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/licenses/license-information/referenced-policies/new-relic-pre-release-policy).

This page covers the updated version of Pathpoint. For the generally available version, see [Introduction to New Relic Pathpoint](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/new-relic-solutions/business-observability/intro-pathpoint).

Pathpoint uses the same health indicators you see across the New Relic platform.

Health status in New Relic is fundamentally derived from alert definitions. There are four possible states:

-   **Red (Critical)**: A critical incident is currently open on the entity. For entities, this reflects the worst case. If even one attached alert condition is in a critical state, the entity is red regardless of the state of other attached conditions.
-   **Yellow (Warning)**: A warning incident is currently open, with no critical incidents open.
-   **Green (Healthy)**: No active incidents for the entity.
-   **Grey (Unknown)**: Indicates one of two situations: there's no data reporting for the entity, or no alert conditions have been defined on the entity (meaning no health parameters exist for that entity).

> #### 💡 NOTE
>
> Service Levels are an exception to the alert-based health rule. The status of a Service Level may also be set based on its compliance level, even if no alert definitions have been defined for it.

## How health is determined [#how-health-is-determined]

Pathpoint derives health in two ways:

-   **Technical health**: The most severe status rolled up through the hierarchy: signals into steps, steps into levels, levels into stages, and stages into the flow.
-   **Business health**: The most severe status across the alert conditions on your KPIs.

You choose which one applies to the flow as a whole, and to each stage individually. The choices are independent, so a flow can use business health while the stages inside it use technical health, or the reverse.

### Technical health [#technical-health]

Technical health propagates bottom-up: Signal → Step → Level → Stage → Flow.

-   **Signal**: The base health unit. Each signal reflects its current health state based on active incidents.
-   **Step**: Reflects the most severe status of its signals by default. You can switch it to reflect the best status instead, apply a threshold before the status changes, and include only selected signals. Steps can also be excluded from contributing to their level's health. See [Add and configure levels and steps](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/pathpoint/create-manage-flows#add-and-configure-levels-and-steps) for more info.
-   **Level**: Always reflects the most severe status of its underlying steps. Not configurable. Steps excluded from the health rollup don't affect the level status.
-   **Stage**: When set to **Rollup of all levels**, the stage reflects the most severe status across all its levels.
-   **Flow**: When set to **Show technical health**, the flow reflects the most severe status of its stages. You can include all stages, or select specific stages only.

> #### 💡 NOTE
>
> Grey (unknown) signals don't count toward the rollup unless every signal in the step is grey. A step with a mix of grey and non-grey signals takes the most severe non-grey status. A step whose signals are all grey shows as grey.

#### Example [#example]

Consider the Online Shop Systems flow, which has five stages. The Core Systems stage contains a level with a **Status** step that has an active critical incident: the step turns red, the level turns red, and the stage turns red. The Shop Functional stage is healthy and shows green. If the flow rolls up from all stages, its status turns red because the most severe status takes precedence.

### Business health [#business-health]

Business health comes from the alert conditions on your KPIs instead of the signal rollup. Use it when status should follow a KPI breaching a threshold. A checkout flow can turn red because conversion rate dropped, even while every underlying service is healthy.

-   At the flow level, select **Show business health** in **Health settings**.
-   At the stage level, select **Alert policy and conditions** in the stage's **Settings**.

## Configure flow health [#configure-flow-health]

To set how a flow's overall health status is determined, select **Health settings** from the navigation within a flow.

![A screenshot showing the Set flow health page with the technical health and business health options and a status preview panel.](https://docs.newrelic.com/images/pathpoint-health-settings.webp "Set flow health")

1.  Under **Flow health**, select a method:
    -   **Show technical health**: The flow status matches the most severe status across its stages. Click **Configure** to choose which stages are included:
        -   **All stages**: The flow status changes if any stage starts having trouble.
        -   **Select stages only**: The flow status changes only if specific stages start having trouble. Select the stages to include from the list.
    -   **Show business health**: The flow status comes from the alert conditions on your KPIs. Click **Configure** to set up the alert policies and conditions. Use this when the flow should turn red on a KPI breaching a threshold rather than on the stage rollup.
2.  Check the **Preview** panel on the right, which shows the resulting flow status, the stages included in the calculation, and the current status of each.
3.  Click **Save** to apply your changes.

> #### 💡 NOTE
>
> The method currently in effect is marked **Active health setting**.