Appendix I - Creating a PagerDuty General Access Key

This appendix describes the one-time setup in PagerDuty that the PagerDuty Alerting connector requires.

Playblocks uses two PagerDuty assets:

  • A General Access Key - An account-wide REST API key that you generate under PagerDuty's Integrations > API Access Keys. The key authorizes Playblocks to read services and write to incidents on behalf of the entire PagerDuty account.

  • A PagerDuty user email address - Appears as the "From" address on incidents that Playblocks creates and modifies. This is for audit attribution only. PagerDuty does not authenticate against this address.

Step 1 - Generate a General Access Key

To generate a General Access Key:

  1. Sign in to PagerDuty as an account administrator.
  2. Go to Integrations > API Access Keys.
  3. Click Create New API Key.
  4. Enter these details:

    • Description - For example, Playblocks. This helps you identify the key if you need to rotate or revoke it.

    • Make sure Read-only access is not selected.

      Note:

      Playblocks needs write access to create and update incidents.

  5. Click Create Key.
  6. Copy the key immediately.
    Important:

    The key appears only once. Store it securely because you cannot retrieve it later.

Step 2 - Identify the email to use as the "From" address

PagerDuty's REST API requires a "From" header that contains the email address of a real, valid user in the PagerDuty account whenever an incident is created or modified. The General Access Key authenticates the request. The "From" email tells PagerDuty which user to record in the incident's history.

Select the email of an existing PagerDuty user. For example, the on-call admin, a SOC manager, or a dedicated "Playblocks Automation" service user that you create.

Note:

The email must belong to a real PagerDuty user. PagerDuty rejects requests with an unknown email.

Step 3 - Identify the correct service URL

PagerDuty operates two regional REST endpoints:

  • United States (default): https://api.pagerduty.com

  • European Union: https://api.eu.pagerduty.com

If you are not sure which region hosts your PagerDuty account, sign in to PagerDuty and check the URL in your browser's address bar:

  • EU tenants sign in through *.eu.pagerduty.com.

  • US tenants sign in through *.pagerduty.com.

You now have:

  • A PagerDuty General Access Key.

  • A PagerDuty user email to use as the "From" address.

  • The correct regional service URL.

Return to PagerDuty Alerting and continue with the Configure the PagerDuty connector procedure.