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I Built an API Monitoring Platform Because My Own API Went Down and I Had No Idea
A student's deployed API went down silently for hours, prompting the creation of Monitorly. Existing uptime monitoring tools felt overly complex for a student project. Monitorly is a new, open-source API uptime monitoring platform designed for simplicity. It features a real-time dashboard that updates instantly without page refreshes. Alerts are sent via email only when an endpoint's status changes, preventing inbox spam. The platform calculates a rolling uptime percentage based on historical check data. Users can configure intervals for checks, ranging from one to fifteen minutes. Monitorly employs JWT authentication for per-user isolation of their monitoring data. Key technologies include Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, and Socket.io. The architecture utilizes cron jobs for scheduling checks and Axios for HTTP requests. A significant learning was designing alert logic for a better user experience rather than purely technical correctness. The project also highlights the importance of separating log data from main documents and implementing request timeouts. Future plans include adding SMS alerts, response body validation, and public status pages.
