# Update Incident Priority

Programmatically changes an incident's priority level based on service context, elapsed time, or other configurable conditions.


> **Availability:** See the [Incident Workflow Actions Overview table](/workflow-actions) for the plans this workflow is available on.

## Description

Programmatically updates incident priority levels within PagerDuty workflows, enabling automated priority adjustments based on incident conditions, service context, or time-based triggers. This action allows teams to dynamically escalate stale incidents, trigger other workflows based on priority condition, and/or auto-assign priorities to new incidents based on configurable business rules.

## Instructions

1. If you have not done so, follow the instructions to [Create an Incident Workflow](/ai-automation/automation/incident-workflows#create-an-incident-workflow).
2. When the instructions prompt you to [add actions](/ai-automation/automation/incident-workflows#add-actions), select **this action**.
3. Enter the following **Inputs** and click **Save**.
4. Continue following instructions to **Publish** the Workflow.
5. When the action runs, you will see the **Outputs** listed below.

> **Priority Levels:** These are typically referred to as P1 through P5 , or SEV-1 through SEV-5. Ensure the priority level you specify matches your account's priority configuration.

## Inputs

> **Field References:** Fields with the **\{+\}** icon accept [Field References](/ai-automation/automation/incident-workflows#field-references), which can be useful for referencing incident data or outputs created in prior workflow steps. To add Field References, click **\{+\}**, or enter `{{`, and select relevant fields. Refer to the [Field References](/ai-automation/automation/incident-workflows#field-references) article for more information.

| Name        | Description                       |
| :---------- | :-------------------------------- |
| Incident ID | The ID of the incident to update. |
| Priority    | The new priority level to assign. |

## Outputs

| Name              | Description                                                                         |
| :---------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Updated Priority  | The new priority level that was successfully applied to the incident.               |
| Previous Priority | The incident's priority level before the update.                                    |
| Incident ID       | The ID of the updated incident.                                                     |
| Result            | Value that shows if the action was successful or not. Either "Success" or "Failed." |
| Result Summary    | Brief description of what the action did or if it failed.                           |
| Error             | Brief description that populates if the action failed.                              |

## Examples

With this workflow you can automatically:

- Escalate unacknowledged incidents to a specified priority after a given amount of time (e.g. An incident escalates to a P1 after 30 minutes if unacknowledged). 
- Assign a specified priority to business critical services and use the output to reflect on status pages or trigger additional notifications (e.g. An incident is assigned a P1 priority if it matches a critical service. The output updates on external facing status pages).