# Monitor CodeBuild builds with CloudWatch alarms
<a name="monitoring-alarms"></a>

 You can create a CloudWatch alarm for your builds. An alarm watches a single metric over a period of time that you specify and performs one or more actions based on the value of the metric relative to a specified threshold over a number of time periods. Using native CloudWatch alarm functionality, you can specify any of the actions supported by CloudWatch when a threshold is exceeded. For example, you can specify that an Amazon SNS notification is sent when more than three builds in your account fail within fifteen minutes. 

**To create a CloudWatch alarm for a CodeBuild metric**

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1.  In the navigation pane, choose **Alarms**. 

1.  Choose **Create Alarm**. 

1.  Under **CloudWatch Metrics by Category**, choose **CodeBuild Metrics**. If you know you want only project-level metrics, choose **By Project**. If you know you want only account-level metrics, choose **Account Metrics**. 

1.  On **Create Alarm**, if it isn't already selected, choose **Select Metric**. 

1.  Choose a metric for which you want to create an alarm. The options are **By Project** or **Account Metrics**. 

1.  Choose **Next** or **Define Alarm** and then create your alarm. For more information, see [Creating Amazon CloudWatch alarms](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*. For more information about setting up Amazon SNS notifications when an alarm is triggered, see [Set up Amazon SNS notifications](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/US_SetupSNS.html) in the *Amazon SNS Developer Guide*. 

1.  Choose **Create Alarm**.