---

name: monitoring-setup description: Expert guide for setting up monitoring dashboards, alerting, metrics collection, and observability. Use when implementing application monitoring, setting up alerts, or building dashboards. slug: monitoring-setup category: operations complexity: complex version: "1.0.0" author: "id8Labs" triggers:

• "monitoring-setup"
• "monitoring setup" tags:
• development
• tool-factory-retrofitted---

Monitoring Setup Skill

Core Workflows

Workflow 1: Primary Action

1. Analyze the input and context
2. Validate prerequisites are met
3. Execute the core operation
4. Verify the output meets expectations
5. Report results

Overview

This skill helps you implement comprehensive monitoring for applications. Covers metrics collection, dashboard creation, alerting strategies, health checks, and observability best practices.

Monitoring Philosophy

Four Golden Signals

1. Latency: Time to serve a request
2. Traffic: Request volume
3. Errors: Failed request rate
4. Saturation: Resource utilization

Observability Pillars

• Metrics: Numeric measurements over time
• Logs: Discrete events with context
• Traces: Request flow across services

Health Check Endpoints

Comprehensive Health Check

// src/app/api/health/route.ts
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';
import Redis from 'ioredis';

interface HealthCheck {
  status: 'healthy' | 'degraded' | 'unhealthy';
  timestamp: string;
  version: string;
  uptime: number;
  checks: {
    database: CheckResult;
    redis: CheckResult;
    external: CheckResult;
  };
}

interface CheckResult {
  status: 'pass' | 'fail';
  latency?: number;
  message?: string;
}

async function checkDatabase(): Promise<CheckResult> {
  const start = Date.now();
  try {
    const supabase = createClient(
      process.env.SUPABASE_URL!,
      process.env.SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY!
    );
    await supabase.from('health_check').select('1').single();
    return {
      status: 'pass',
      latency: Date.now() - start,
    };
  } catch (error) {
    return {
      status: 'fail',
      message: error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error',
    };
  }
}

async function checkRedis(): Promise<CheckResult> {
  const start = Date.now();
  try {
    const redis = new Redis(process.env.REDIS_URL!);
    await redis.ping();
    redis.disconnect();
    return {
      status: 'pass',
      latency: Date.now() - start,
    };
  } catch (error) {
    return {
      status: 'fail',
      message: error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error',
    };
  }
}

async function checkExternal(): Promise<CheckResult> {
  const start = Date.now();
  try {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.stripe.com/v1/health', {
      method: 'HEAD',
    });
    return {
      status: response.ok ? 'pass' : 'fail',
      latency: Date.now() - start,
    };
  } catch (error) {
    return {
      status: 'fail',
      message: 'External service unavailable',
    };
  }
}

const startTime = Date.now();

export async function GET() {
  const [database, redis, external] = await Promise.all([
    checkDatabase(),
    checkRedis(),
    checkExternal(),
  ]);

  const checks = { database, redis, external };

  const allPassed = Object.values(checks).every((c) => c.status === 'pass');
  const anyFailed = Object.values(checks).some((c) => c.status === 'fail');

  const health: HealthCheck = {
    status: allPassed ? 'healthy' : anyFailed ? 'unhealthy' : 'degraded',
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
    version: process.env.VERCEL_GIT_COMMIT_SHA || 'local',
    uptime: Math.floor((Date.now() - startTime) / 1000),
    checks,
  };

  return NextResponse.json(health, {
    status: health.status === 'healthy' ? 200 : 503,
    headers: {
      'Cache-Control': 'no-store',
    },
  });
}

Kubernetes-Style Probes

// src/app/api/health/live/route.ts
// Liveness probe - is the app running?
export async function GET() {
  return new Response('OK', { status: 200 });
}

// src/app/api/health/ready/route.ts
// Readiness probe - can the app handle traffic?
export async function GET() {
  try {
    // Check critical dependencies
    await checkDatabase();
    return new Response('OK', { status: 200 });
  } catch {
    return new Response('Not Ready', { status: 503 });
  }
}

Metrics Collection

Custom Metrics with Prometheus Client

// src/lib/metrics.ts
import { Counter, Histogram, Gauge, Registry } from 'prom-client';

export const registry = new Registry();

// HTTP request metrics
export const httpRequestsTotal = new Counter({
  name: 'http_requests_total',
  help: 'Total HTTP requests',
  labelNames: ['method', 'route', 'status'],
  registers: [registry],
});

export const httpRequestDuration = new Histogram({
  name: 'http_request_duration_seconds',
  help: 'HTTP request duration in seconds',
  labelNames: ['method', 'route'],
  buckets: [0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 5],
  registers: [registry],
});

// Business metrics
export const activeUsers = new Gauge({
  name: 'active_users',
  help: 'Number of currently active users',
  registers: [registry],
});

export const ordersTotal = new Counter({
  name: 'orders_total',
  help: 'Total orders processed',
  labelNames: ['status', 'payment_method'],
  registers: [registry],
});

// Database metrics
export const dbQueryDuration = new Histogram({
  name: 'db_query_duration_seconds',
  help: 'Database query duration',
  labelNames: ['operation', 'table'],
  buckets: [0.001, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1],
  registers: [registry],
});

Metrics Endpoint

// src/app/api/metrics/route.ts
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import { registry } from '@/lib/metrics';

export async function GET(request: Request) {
  // Optional: Basic auth protection
  const authHeader = request.headers.get('authorization');
  if (authHeader !== `Bearer ${process.env.METRICS_TOKEN}`) {
    return new Response('Unauthorized', { status: 401 });
  }

  const metrics = await registry.metrics();

  return new Response(metrics, {
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': registry.contentType,
    },
  });
}

Middleware for Request Metrics

// src/middleware.ts
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import type { NextRequest } from 'next/server';
import { httpRequestsTotal, httpRequestDuration } from '@/lib/metrics';

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const start = Date.now();

  const response = NextResponse.next();

  // Record metrics after response
  const route = request.nextUrl.pathname;
  const method = request.method;
  const status = response.status.toString();

  httpRequestsTotal.inc({ method, route, status });
  httpRequestDuration.observe(
    { method, route },
    (Date.now() - start) / 1000
  );

  return response;
}

Alerting Configuration

Alert Rules (Prometheus/Grafana)

# alerts.yml
groups:
  - name: application
    rules:
      # High error rate
      - alert: HighErrorRate
        expr: |
          sum(rate(http_requests_total{status=~"5.."}[5m]))
          /
          sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m]))
          > 0.05
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: High error rate detected
          description: Error rate is {{ $value | humanizePercentage }} over the last 5 minutes

      # High latency
      - alert: HighLatency
        expr: |
          histogram_quantile(0.95,
            sum(rate(http_request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m])) by (le)
          ) > 2
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: High latency detected
          description: 95th percentile latency is {{ $value | humanizeDuration }}

      # Service down
      - alert: ServiceDown
        expr: up == 0
        for: 1m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: Service is down
          description: "{{ $labels.instance }} has been down for more than 1 minute"

      # Database connection pool exhausted
      - alert: DatabaseConnectionsHigh
        expr: pg_stat_activity_count > 80
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: Database connection pool nearly exhausted
          description: "{{ $value }} connections in use"

  - name: infrastructure
    rules:
      # High CPU
      - alert: HighCPU
        expr: node_cpu_seconds_total{mode="idle"} < 20
        for: 10m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: High CPU usage

      # Low disk space
      - alert: LowDiskSpace
        expr: |
          (node_filesystem_avail_bytes / node_filesystem_size_bytes) * 100 < 10
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: Low disk space
          description: Only {{ $value | humanizePercentage }} disk space remaining

Vercel/Uptime Monitoring

// scripts/uptime-check.ts
// Run via cron or external monitoring service

const ENDPOINTS = [
  { name: 'Health', url: 'https://myapp.com/api/health' },
  { name: 'Homepage', url: 'https://myapp.com' },
  { name: 'API', url: 'https://myapp.com/api/status' },
];

const WEBHOOK_URL = process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL;

async function checkEndpoint(endpoint: typeof ENDPOINTS[0]) {
  const start = Date.now();
  try {
    const response = await fetch(endpoint.url, {
      method: 'GET',
      signal: AbortSignal.timeout(10000),
    });

    return {
      name: endpoint.name,
      url: endpoint.url,
      status: response.status,
      latency: Date.now() - start,
      healthy: response.ok,
    };
  } catch (error) {
    return {
      name: endpoint.name,
      url: endpoint.url,
      status: 0,
      latency: Date.now() - start,
      healthy: false,
      error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error',
    };
  }
}

async function notifySlack(message: string) {
  if (!WEBHOOK_URL) return;

  await fetch(WEBHOOK_URL, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify({ text: message }),
  });
}

async function runChecks() {
  const results = await Promise.all(ENDPOINTS.map(checkEndpoint));

  const unhealthy = results.filter((r) => !r.healthy);

  if (unhealthy.length > 0) {
    const message = `🚨 *Uptime Alert*\n${unhealthy
      .map((r) => `• ${r.name}: ${r.error || `Status ${r.status}`}`)
      .join('\n')}`;

    await notifySlack(message);
  }

  console.log(JSON.stringify(results, null, 2));
}

runChecks();

Dashboard Configuration

Grafana Dashboard JSON

{
  "title": "Application Overview",
  "panels": [
    {
      "title": "Request Rate",
      "type": "graph",
      "targets": [
        {
          "expr": "sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m])) by (route)",
          "legendFormat": "{{ route }}"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Error Rate",
      "type": "stat",
      "targets": [
        {
          "expr": "sum(rate(http_requests_total{status=~\"5..\"}[5m])) / sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m])) * 100"
        }
      ],
      "fieldConfig": {
        "defaults": {
          "unit": "percent",
          "thresholds": {
            "steps": [
              { "value": 0, "color": "green" },
              { "value": 1, "color": "yellow" },
              { "value": 5, "color": "red" }
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "title": "Response Time (p95)",
      "type": "gauge",
      "targets": [
        {
          "expr": "histogram_quantile(0.95, sum(rate(http_request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m])) by (le))"
        }
      ],
      "fieldConfig": {
        "defaults": {
          "unit": "s",
          "thresholds": {
            "steps": [
              { "value": 0, "color": "green" },
              { "value": 0.5, "color": "yellow" },
              { "value": 2, "color": "red" }
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "title": "Active Users",
      "type": "stat",
      "targets": [
        {
          "expr": "active_users"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Vercel Analytics Integration

// src/app/layout.tsx
import { Analytics } from '@vercel/analytics/react';
import { SpeedInsights } from '@vercel/speed-insights/next';

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        {children}
        <Analytics />
        <SpeedInsights />
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

Status Page

Simple Status Page

// src/app/status/page.tsx
import { Suspense } from 'react';

interface ServiceStatus {
  name: string;
  status: 'operational' | 'degraded' | 'outage';
  lastChecked: string;
}

async function getStatus(): Promise<ServiceStatus[]> {
  const response = await fetch(
    `${process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL}/api/health`,
    { next: { revalidate: 60 } }
  );

  if (!response.ok) {
    return [
      { name: 'API', status: 'outage', lastChecked: new Date().toISOString() },
    ];
  }

  const health = await response.json();

  return [
    {
      name: 'API',
      status: health.status === 'healthy' ? 'operational' : 'degraded',
      lastChecked: health.timestamp,
    },
    {
      name: 'Database',
      status: health.checks.database.status === 'pass' ? 'operational' : 'outage',
      lastChecked: health.timestamp,
    },
    {
      name: 'Cache',
      status: health.checks.redis.status === 'pass' ? 'operational' : 'degraded',
      lastChecked: health.timestamp,
    },
  ];
}

function StatusBadge({ status }: { status: ServiceStatus['status'] }) {
  const colors = {
    operational: 'bg-green-500',
    degraded: 'bg-yellow-500',
    outage: 'bg-red-500',
  };

  return (
    <span className={`inline-block w-3 h-3 rounded-full ${colors[status]}`} />
  );
}

export default async function StatusPage() {
  const services = await getStatus();
  const allOperational = services.every((s) => s.status === 'operational');

  return (
    <div className="max-w-2xl mx-auto p-8">
      <h1 className="text-2xl font-bold mb-8">System Status</h1>

      <div className={`p-4 rounded-lg mb-8 ${
        allOperational ? 'bg-green-100' : 'bg-yellow-100'
      }`}>
        <p className="font-medium">
          {allOperational
            ? 'All systems operational'
            : 'Some systems experiencing issues'}
        </p>
      </div>

      <div className="space-y-4">
        {services.map((service) => (
          <div
            key={service.name}
            className="flex items-center justify-between p-4 border rounded"
          >
            <div className="flex items-center gap-3">
              <StatusBadge status={service.status} />
              <span className="font-medium">{service.name}</span>
            </div>
            <span className="text-sm text-gray-500 capitalize">
              {service.status}
            </span>
          </div>
        ))}
      </div>

      <p className="mt-8 text-sm text-gray-500">
        Last updated: {new Date().toLocaleString()}
      </p>
    </div>
  );
}

Monitoring Checklist

Application Monitoring

• Health check endpoint
• Request latency metrics
• Error rate tracking
• Active user count
• Business metrics (orders, signups, etc.)

Infrastructure Monitoring

• CPU/Memory utilization
• Disk space
• Network I/O
• Database connections
• Cache hit rate

Alerting

• Error rate thresholds
• Latency thresholds
• Uptime monitoring
• Resource alerts
• On-call rotation configured

Dashboards

• Overview dashboard
• API performance
• Database metrics
• Business KPIs
• Status page (public)

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when:

• Setting up monitoring for a new project
• Creating health check endpoints
• Implementing metrics collection
• Configuring alerting rules
• Building monitoring dashboards
• Setting up status pages
• Debugging performance issues
• Planning capacity