# Overrides and take over

Plans change: someone goes on vacation, gets sick, or is already working on the problem that just paged a colleague. EvoHub handles this in two ways. An **override** changes who is on call on a schedule for a period of time. **Take over** makes a single alert yours.

## Overrides

An override puts a replacement person on a schedule from a start time to an end time. While it is active, the override wins over every layer of the schedule: anyone who asks the schedule "who is on call" — the **Currently On-Call** banner, the mobile app and every escalation step that targets the schedule — gets the override person.

### Add an override in the console

:::steps
### Open the schedule
Go to **On-Call → Schedules** and open the schedule.
### Click Add Override
In the **Overrides** section, click **Add Override**.
### Fill in the details
Choose the **Replacement User**, the **Start Time** and **End Time**, and optionally a **Reason (optional)** such as "Vacation cover".
### Save
The override appears in the list, marked **Active** while it is in effect, with the time range shown on the schedule's clock.
:::

To remove an override, click the trash icon on its row. The schedule goes back to its normal rotation immediately.

Only people who are allowed to respond to alerts can be chosen as a replacement. Adding and removing overrides needs permission to edit schedules (Owners, Admins and Members have it by default).

### Take or give a shift from the mobile app

In the EvoHub mobile app, open the **On-Call** tab, choose **Schedule**, tap a day, and choose who covers it under **Assign coverage to** in the **Override shift** sheet. Choose yourself to take the shift, or a teammate to hand it over. The app creates an override for that whole day (midnight to midnight on your phone's clock). If the day is already covered by an override, the sheet shows it under **Currently overridden** with an option to remove it.

### Things to know

- If two overrides overlap, the one that started first is used for the overlapping time. To change who covers a period, delete the old override rather than adding a second one on top.
- An override covers the whole schedule, not one layer. On a schedule with a primary and a backup layer, the override person is reached by every step that targets that schedule.
- Overrides are not copied by the Opsgenie importer. Recreate upcoming ones by hand after an import.

## Take over an alert

**Take over** says "I've got this" for one alert. It:

1. Assigns the alert to you.
2. Acknowledges it, if it was still triggered.
3. Stops its escalation, so nobody else is paged for it.
4. Records **Taken over by** you (and from whom, if it was assigned to someone else) on the alert's timeline.

You can take over an alert that is assigned to someone else or to nobody. You cannot take over a resolved alert.

Where to find it:

- **Console**: open the alert and click **Take over**. The button is hidden when the alert is already assigned to you.
- **Bulk**: on **On-Call → Alerts**, select open alerts and click **Take over N**.
- **Mobile app**: open the alert and tap **Take over**.
- **Slack**: in the alert message's **…** menu, choose **Take over** (when Slack is connected; see [Slack](https://docs-dev.evohub.io/slack.md)).

Taking over needs permission to respond to alerts, which Owners, Admins and Members have by default.

### Take over or redirect?

| You want to | Use |
| --- | --- |
| Own the alert yourself and stop paging others | **Take over** |
| Hand the alert to a different team's escalation policy | **Redirect** — the current escalation stops and the selected policy is paged from the top |
| Stop being paged for it while you investigate, without taking ownership | **Acknowledge** |

See [Alerts and incidents](https://docs-dev.evohub.io/alerts-and-incidents.md) for all alert actions.

## Related

- [Schedules and rotations](https://docs-dev.evohub.io/schedules-and-rotations.md)
- [Escalation policies](https://docs-dev.evohub.io/escalation-policies.md)
- [Mobile app](https://docs-dev.evohub.io/mobile-app.md)