ICS feed exports

On-Call Optimizer can publish iCalendar (ICS) feeds of on-call shifts, so you can subscribe to your shifts in any app that accepts an ICS feed (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Microsoft Outlook).

ICS feeds are read-only. They export shifts from On-Call Optimizer only. They are not a replacement for destinations, which stay in sync with a specific on-call product.

Feed types

There are two types of ICS feed available:

Schedule feed

A schedule feed exports all shifts for a specific schedule. If the schedule has multiple roles, each role’s shifts are included as separate events.

Schedule feeds are managed in the Calendar feed panel on the schedule’s Integrations tab, by users who can edit the schedule.

User feed

A user feed exports all shifts assigned to you across all of your schedules. This is useful if you want a single calendar subscription that shows all of your upcoming on-call shifts.

User feeds are managed on your profile page: open the account menu (your avatar in the top right) and choose Profile. The calendar feed panel is below your settings.

Enabling a feed

To enable an ICS feed:

1. Open the schedule’s Integrations tab (for a schedule feed) or your Profile (for a user feed).
2. In the Calendar feed panel, turn on the switch.
3. A unique feed URL is created and shown.
4. Click the copy icon (Copy URL) and add the URL to your calendar application as a new subscription.

Managing a feed

Once the feed is on, you can:

• Copy URL: copy the feed URL to your clipboard.
• Regenerate URL: create a new feed URL. The old URL stops working straight away, so update any calendar subscriptions that use it. Confirm in the Regenerate feed URL? dialog.
• Disable: turn off the switch to remove the feed. Calendar subscriptions stop updating. Confirm in the Disable calendar feed? dialog with Disable feed.

Both dialogs show when the feed was last fetched. If an application has fetched it recently, they also warn you that the feed is in use.

Security

Feed URLs do not require authentication, so that applications can fetch them without needing to log in to On-Call Optimizer.

Event format

By default, ICS feed events include the schedule name, role, and assignee details in the event title and description, with a link that opens the schedule’s calendar in On-Call Optimizer at the shift’s date.

An alternative plain text format is available by appending ?event_format=plain to the feed URL. The plain format uses a simplified event title (assignee email only) which may be more suitable for integrations with monitoring tools or dashboards.