What's the difference between a finding and an alert?
Updated: August 18, 2026
In the FireTail platform, findings and alerts can be used to enhance AI security by providing detailed insights into issues and notifying you when specific conditions are met.
What are Findings?
Findings provide detailed information about issues or potential issues with your AI models. They are generated when the FireTail platform identifies an issue corresponding to various AI security frameworks or other general AI security concerns.
How findings are generated
- Event occurrence: Findings can be triggered when an event occurs, such as when a specification is uploaded to the FireTail platform or when a GitHub repository is scanned.
- Event processing: During these events, the events processor scans the file or repository. If certain criteria are met, a finding is created. A single event can lead to multiple findings.
- Log detections and active scanning: Continuous monitoring of logs and scans can trigger new findings.
What are Alerts?
Alerts notify you when specific conditions or thresholds are met in your AI environment. FireTail supports static alerts, which are triggered when predefined thresholds are exceeded — for example, when the number of AI logs or total tokens consumed passes a limit you set.
Alerts are fully customizable — you can set filters, conditions, and choose how you receive notifications (e.g., Slack, email).
Learn more about alerting and creating a static alert.
Differences between Findings and Alerts
| Aspect | Findings | Alerts |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Detailed security issues identified by FireTail based on standards | Notifications based on user-defined thresholds or anomalies |
| Trigger | Specific security criteria or scanning results | User-configured conditions or anomaly detection |
| Usage | Investigate and remediate AI security issues | Stay informed and respond to changing AI activity |