---
title: Publish event handler
description: The “publish” event handler allows you to publish Kapacitor alerts messages to multiple Kapacitor topics. This page includes options and usage examples.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/kapacitor/v1/reference/event_handlers/publish/
estimated_tokens: 1412
product: Kapacitor
version: v1
---

# Publish event handler

The publish event handler publishes events to another topic.

## Options

The following publish event handler options can be set in a [handler file](/kapacitor/v1/reference/event_handlers/#create-a-topic-handler-with-a-handler-file).

| Name | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| topics | list of string | List of topic names to publish events. |

### Example: handler file

```yaml
id: handler-id
topic: topic-name
kind: publish
options:
  topics:
    - system
    - ops_team
```

## Using the publish event handler

The following setup sends an alert to the `cpu` topic with the message, “Hey, check your CPU”. A publish handler is added that subscribes to the `cpu` topic and publishes new alerts to other topics.

Create a TICKscript that publishes alert messages to a topic. The TICKscript below sends an alert message to the `cpu` topic any time idle CPU usage drops below 10%.

***cpu\_alert.tick***

```js
stream
  |from()
    .measurement('cpu')
  |alert()
    .crit(lambda: "usage_idle" < 10)
    .message('Hey, check your CPU')
    .topic('cpu')
```

Add and enable the TICKscript:

```bash
kapacitor define cpu_alert -tick cpu_alert.tick
kapacitor enable cpu_alert
```

Create a handler file that subscribes to the `cpu` topic and uses the publish event handler to publish alerts to other topics.

***publish\_cpu\_alerts\_handler.yaml***

```yaml
id: publish-cpu-alert
topic: cpu
kind: publish
options:
  topics:
    - system
    - ops_team
```

Add the handler:

```bash
kapacitor define-topic-handler publish_cpu_alerts_handler.yaml
```