---
title: "Silence and unknown states"
description: "Why a signal that cannot be read is shown as unknown, never as fine."
url: "https://docs.octo.ad/agents/silence-and-unknown/"
id: "agents/silence-and-unknown"
type: "concept"
audience: "operator"
dateModified: "2026-11-06"
productArea: "agents at work"
keywords: ["unknown", "monitoring"]
---

# Silence and unknown states

> Why a signal that cannot be read is shown as unknown, never as fine.

It reports unknown, never healthy. A quiet queue could mean everything finished or everything broke, so OCTOPUS separates a held lane from a silent one: a braked lane reads held, and a lane that went quiet for no reason raises its hand. Heartbeats run on every worker and service, and alerts fire on a change of state rather than on a timer.

## Silence and unknown states, by category

- **What the category typically offers:** A quiet queue reads as healthy unless an error fires.
- **What OCTOPUS does:** A held lane is shown as held, a lane that went quiet raises its hand, and a signal the platform cannot read reports unknown, never healthy. Alerts fire on a change of state.
- **Question to ask any vendor:** What does your dashboard show when the monitor itself cannot read a signal?