monitors.txt lazy web app monitoring

TL;DR Specify your web app’s monitoring in a plain text file that your monitoring provider reads at http://yoursite.tld/monitors.txt to setup your monitors.

Register for the Henchmon Beta to be one of the first to use monitors.txt

What is monitors.txt?

A text file that lives at www.yoursite.tld/monitors.txt and describes in plain text what monitoring you want done on your site.

Your monitoring provider regularly reads your monitors.txt file to configure your application's monitors. Due to the open nature of monitors.txt, you'll be able to quickly switch monitor providers or even add new providers without hassle.

Define monitors where they belong

One intention of monitors.txt is to encourage developers to improve monitoring for their web sites by making it easy to setup new monitors; I don't enjoy logging into some monitoring service web app to setup monitors, but I do enjoy writing readable monitoring tests right there in my code, where they belong.

What if I want to keep my monitor configuration private?

Two ways spring to mind:

Restrict access to the file so only your monitoring provider can read it
For the more gung-ho, obfuscate the URL and use SSL (e.g. https://yoursite.tld/something-unguessable/monitors.txt) and tell your provider where to find your monitors.txt

Show me a sample monitors.txt already

Current intention is to support multiple formats for monitors.txt:

Gherkin/Cucumber monitors.txt
YAML monitors.yml
JSON monitors.json
XML monitors.xml

How can I start using monitors.txt?

I'm developing a monitoring service named Henchmon to use monitors.txt. If you want to be part of the Henchmon Beta, register for an invite.

Feedback appreciated

monitors.txt is a work in progress that I'd love your feedback on. Discuss on Hacker News, email eliotsykes -at- gmail, tweet @eliotsykes, or contribute/fork on GitHub eliotsykes/monitorstxt

Author

Eliot Sykes (eliotsykes -at- gmail)