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When a new incident closes and sureops detects that it matches the pattern of an existing problem, it links the incident as a recurrence rather than opening a new problem record. Over time this builds a chain — a durable record of every time the same underlying issue has surfaced, with dates, durations, and closure context preserved.

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Why this matters

Without recurrence tracking, each incident that stems from the same root cause is resolved in isolation. Teams fix the symptom, close the ticket, and rediscover the same problem weeks later. Recurrence chains make the pattern visible:
  • How many times has this service failed in the last 90 days?
  • Is the fix applied in the first incident actually holding?
  • Are recurrences accelerating (shorter gaps) or stabilizing (longer gaps)?
When an incident reaches closure, sureops automatically runs a pattern-matching step:
1

Similarity analysis

sureops compares the closed incident’s root cause signals — affected services, failure mode, alert fingerprint, and AI-generated diagnosis summary — against open and recently-resolved problem records.
2

Match scoring

If the similarity score exceeds the recurrence threshold, sureops marks the incident as a recurrence of the matching problem rather than creating a new problem record.
3

Chain update

The problem record is updated: the incident is appended to the recurrence chain, the Last seen date is updated, and the recurrence count increments. If the problem was previously marked Resolved, its status returns to Active.
4

Notification

Anyone watching the problem record receives a recurrence notification. The incident timeline links to the problem; the problem detail page links back to the incident.
A resolved problem re-opening on recurrence is intentional, not a bug. It signals the original fix was incomplete or that a regression occurred. The full prior history is preserved — you don’t lose previous resolution context.

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Viewing a recurrence chain

Open any problem record and scroll to the Recurrence History section. The timeline shows every linked incident: The timeline is sorted newest-first. The Gap column helps you spot whether recurrences are accelerating or stabilizing after a fix.

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Problem status and recurrences

When a recurrence is detected on a Resolved problem:
  • Status moves back to Active automatically
  • The incident is appended to the chain (original history is never modified)
  • recurrence_count increments
A problem that has recurred three or more times with short gaps between incidents likely has an unresolved root cause. sureops flags these records to prompt deeper investigation.

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Manual linking

Automatic linking handles the common case. You can also link incidents manually:
  1. Open the incident detail page
  2. Scroll to the Problem Record section
  3. Click Link to existing problem
  4. Search for the problem by title or ID and confirm
Manual links appear in the recurrence chain with the same metadata as automatic ones.

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Correcting a wrong match

If the automatic similarity match linked the wrong problem:
  1. Open the problem record
  2. Find the incident in Recurrence History
  3. Click Unlink
  4. If the incident belongs to a different problem, link it manually from the incident detail page
sureops uses your corrections to improve future matching.

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Configuration

Your Admin can adjust recurrence behavior in Settings → Problem Management:

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Frequently asked questions

Can a single incident appear in multiple recurrence chains? No. Each incident links to at most one problem. If you link manually, that link takes precedence over any automatic match. Does recurrence tracking update the problem’s AI analysis? Yes. When a recurrence is detected, sureops re-runs the problem’s AI analysis with the new incident’s data added as context. The updated analysis appears in the problem’s AI Analysis tab. What if no matching problem exists? A new problem record is created automatically at incident closure, just as it would be for any novel incident pattern.
  • Tracker sync — push problem records (including recurrence updates) to your issue tracker
  • Incident channels — get Slack notifications when a recurrence is detected