> This page is for Home.

> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.emnify.com/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.emnify.com/_mcp/server.

# emnify system events

> Learn the basics and structure of emnify system events

The emnify system generates several types of events.
These events allow you to track notable system occurrences based on behavior and provide information about lifecycle transitions and configuration changes.

> **Note**
>
> Event history is stored for 30 days.

## Use cases

Some common use cases for events on emnify include:

* **Triggers for custom business processes** (for example, authentication or custom usage limitations configured on the [emnify Portal](/system-events/usage#emnify-portal))
* **Monitoring** (for example, SIM or data connection lifecycles)
* **Input for custom billing systems** (for example, updating billing configuration or processing invoices)

## Structure

Each event is represented by an object based on the [generic Event Object and its associated properties](/developers/reference/events).

Depending on the event type, some generic properties may not apply, and some events may have additional custom fields to provide information about what happened.

### Event type

For an overview of the specific events generated by our platform, see [Event types](/system-events/event-types).

### Event severity

Events are distinguished by three severity levels:

| Severity Level | Description                                                                                                                    |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Info           | Expected behavior of the executed event (for example, a device successfully attaches to a network).                            |
| Warn           | Problem or unusual behavior, but doesn't necessarily require immediate action (for example, a credit card expires in 60 days). |
| Critical       | Serious issue that likely requires additional follow-up (for example, charging for an invoice failed).                         |

Find more information in the [API reference](/developers/reference/events#event-severity-object).

### Event source

Every event is triggered by one of four available event sources:

| Event source   | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Network        | The cellular network your device is connected to (for example, a location is updated or purged).                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Policy control | Both the emnify system and your Workspace can define and enforce policies, quotas, or other limitations - The emnify system can block devices that exceed predefined traffic limits. 
-  Your Workspace could configure the maximum SMS usage for devices to limit SMS traffic. |
| API            | The [emnify REST API](/developers/api).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| Semantic       | The emnify event processing engine, which evaluates the conditions you configure for [custom events](/system-events/event-types/custom-events).                                                                                                                                      |

> **Note**
>
> Any events triggered in the [emnify Portal](/system-events/usage#emnify-portal) show **API** as the event source, because the Portal uses the API to make its changes.

Find more information in the [API reference](/developers/reference/events#event-source-object).

### User tracking for auditing

[Device status management events](/system-events/event-types/device-status-management) include information about who performed the action.
When viewing these events in the Portal, click an event row to see the **Action performed by** field, which displays the user's name, email, and user ID.

> **Note**
>
> User information is available for actions performed through the Portal or API with [user credentials](/developers/auth/user-credentials).
> Actions authenticated with application tokens don't include user details.

## Working with events

There are three main ways you can access and trigger events:

* [Data Streamer](/system-events/usage#data-streamer)
* [Event API](/system-events/usage#event-api)
* [emnify Portal](/system-events/usage#emnify-portal)

More information on these systems and how they compare is available on the [Work with events](/system-events/usage) page.

To react to events automatically with rules and notifications, see [Automations](/services/automations).