new_contents: '''
  Module for issuing alerts from the monitor service.
  Examples:
      alert.notice 'things are going great'
      alert.warning 'the {} is wobbling' turboencabulator
      alert.error 'the {1} is {0:.1f} mm from failure' 12.34 'wain shaft'
  '''
  
  __opts__ = {}
  
  def _alert(level, msg, *args, **kwargs):
      return "{}: {}".format(level, msg.format(*args, **kwargs))
  
  def notice(msg, *args, **kwargs):
      '''
      Send a 'notice' alert.
      msg = a message optionally containing string.format() '{}' references
      args = positional args passed to string.format()
      kwargs = keyword args passed to string.format()
      '''
      return _alert("NOTICE", msg, *args, **kwargs)
  
  def warning(msg, *args, **kwargs):
      '''
      Send a 'warning' alert.
      msg = a message optionally containing string.format() '{}' references
      args = positional args passed to string.format()
      kwargs = keyword args passed to string.format()
      '''
      return _alert("WARNING", msg, *args, **kwargs)
  
  def error(msg, *args, **kwargs):
      '''
      Send an 'error' alert.
      msg = a message optionally containing string.format() '{}' references
      args = positional args passed to string.format()
      kwargs = keyword args passed to string.format()
      '''
      return _alert("ERROR", msg, *args, **kwargs)
  
  def critical(msg, *args, **kwargs):
      '''
      Send a 'critical' alert.
      msg = a message optionally containing string.format() '{}' references
      args = positional args passed to string.format()
      kwargs = keyword args passed to string.format()
      '''
      return _alert("FATAL", msg, *args, **kwargs)
  
  def fatal(msg, *args, **kwargs):
      '''
      Send a 'fatal' alert.
      msg = a message optionally containing string.format() '{}' references
      args = positional args passed to string.format()
      kwargs = keyword args passed to string.format()
      '''
      return _alert("FATAL", msg, *args, **kwargs)
  
subject: Add alert module that (currently) just echoes the message. Butter will search for alert messages in the mongo database.