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betterstack

Expert guidance for Better Stack (formerly Better Uptime + Logtail), the observability platform combining uptime monitoring, log management, incident response, and status pages. Helps developers set up comprehensive monitoring with alerting, on-call schedules, and public status pages.

#uptime#logging#incident-management#status-page#on-call
terminal-skillsv1.0.0
Works with:claude-codeopenai-codexgemini-clicursor
Source

Usage

$
✓ Installed betterstack v1.0.0

Getting Started

  1. Install the skill using the command above
  2. Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
  3. Reference the skill in your prompt
  4. The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically

Example Prompts

  • "Deploy the latest build to the staging environment and run smoke tests"
  • "Check the CI pipeline status and summarize any recent failures"

Documentation

Overview

Better Stack (formerly Better Uptime + Logtail), the observability platform combining uptime monitoring, log management, incident response, and status pages. Helps developers set up comprehensive monitoring with alerting, on-call schedules, and public status pages.

Instructions

Uptime Monitoring

typescript
// Better Stack monitors HTTP endpoints, TCP ports, DNS, SSL, and more.
// Configure via dashboard or Terraform.

// Terraform configuration for uptime monitors
resource "betteruptime_monitor" "api" {
  url          = "https://api.example.com/health"
  monitor_type = "status"
  check_frequency = 30                    // Check every 30 seconds
  
  request_headers = [{
    name  = "Authorization"
    value = "Bearer ${var.health_check_token}"
  }]

  // Alert if response doesn't contain expected string
  expected_status_codes = [200]
  
  // Regions to check from (catch regional outages)
  regions = ["us", "eu", "asia"]
  
  // Escalation policy
  policy_id = betteruptime_escalation_policy.default.id
}

resource "betteruptime_monitor" "database" {
  url          = "tcp://db.example.com:5432"
  monitor_type = "tcp"
  check_frequency = 60
  policy_id = betteruptime_escalation_policy.default.id
}

resource "betteruptime_monitor" "ssl_cert" {
  url          = "https://example.com"
  monitor_type = "ssl"
  // Alert 30 days before SSL certificate expires
  ssl_expiration = 30
  policy_id = betteruptime_escalation_policy.default.id
}

Log Management (Logtail)

typescript
// Send structured logs to Better Stack
import { Logtail } from "@logtail/node";

const logtail = new Logtail(process.env.LOGTAIL_SOURCE_TOKEN!);

// Structured logging with context
logtail.info("Order processed", {
  orderId: "ord_abc123",
  userId: "usr_456",
  amount: 99.99,
  duration_ms: 245,
  region: "us-east-1",
});

logtail.error("Payment failed", {
  orderId: "ord_def789",
  error: "Card declined",
  stripe_error_code: "card_declined",
  retryable: true,
});

// Pino integration (recommended for production)
import pino from "pino";

const logger = pino(
  pino.transport({
    target: "@logtail/pino",
    options: { sourceToken: process.env.LOGTAIL_SOURCE_TOKEN },
  })
);

logger.info({ orderId: "ord_123", userId: "usr_456" }, "Order created");

On-Call and Escalation

yaml
# Escalation policy configuration (via API or dashboard)
# Step 1: Notify on-call engineer via Slack + push notification
# Step 2: After 5 min unacknowledged → call on-call engineer
# Step 3: After 10 min unacknowledged → escalate to team lead
# Step 4: After 15 min unacknowledged → page entire engineering team

# On-call schedule: weekly rotation
# Week 1: engineer-a
# Week 2: engineer-b
# Week 3: engineer-c
# Override: any engineer can take over via Slack command

Status Pages

typescript
// Better Stack provides hosted status pages with:
// - Custom domain (status.yourcompany.com)
// - Automatic incident creation from monitor alerts
// - Manual incident updates
// - Subscriber notifications (email, SMS, webhook)
// - Historical uptime (90-day, 365-day)
// - Maintenance windows

// API: Create an incident programmatically
const response = await fetch("https://uptime.betterstack.com/api/v2/incidents", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.BETTERSTACK_API_TOKEN}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    requester_email: "ops@example.com",
    name: "Elevated API Latency",
    summary: "API response times are elevated due to database migration. No data loss expected.",
    description: "We are performing a planned database migration. Some requests may take longer than usual.",
    status_page_ids: ["12345"],
  }),
});

Heartbeat Monitoring

typescript
// Monitor cron jobs and background tasks
// Better Stack provides heartbeat URLs — if not pinged within the expected interval, it alerts.

// In your cron job:
async function dailyReport() {
  try {
    await generateReport();
    await sendReportEmail();

    // Ping heartbeat on success
    await fetch("https://uptime.betterstack.com/api/v1/heartbeat/abc123");
  } catch (error) {
    // Don't ping heartbeat — Better Stack will alert after the expected interval
    console.error("Daily report failed:", error);
  }
}

Installation

bash
# Node.js logging
npm install @logtail/node
npm install @logtail/pino          # Pino transport

# CLI
brew install betterstack/tap/better-uptime

# Terraform provider
terraform {
  required_providers {
    betteruptime = {
      source = "BetterStackHQ/better-uptime"
    }
  }
}

Examples

Example 1: Setting up Betterstack for a microservices project

User request:

I have a Node.js API and a React frontend running in Docker. Set up Betterstack for monitoring/deployment.

The agent creates the necessary configuration files based on patterns like # Escalation policy configuration (via API or dashboard), sets up the integration with the existing Docker setup, configures appropriate defaults for a Node.js + React stack, and provides verification commands to confirm everything is working.

Example 2: Troubleshooting log management issues

User request:

Betterstack is showing errors in our log management. Here are the logs: [error output]

The agent analyzes the error output, identifies the root cause by cross-referencing with common Betterstack issues, applies the fix (updating configuration, adjusting resource limits, or correcting syntax), and verifies the resolution with appropriate health checks.

Guidelines

  1. Monitor from multiple regions — Check from US, EU, and Asia; a single region can have false positives from network issues
  2. Heartbeats for cron jobs — Use heartbeat monitors for every scheduled task; silent failures are the worst kind
  3. Escalation policies — Always have an escalation chain; a single point of failure in alerting defeats the purpose
  4. Status page for trust — Public status pages build customer trust; auto-create incidents from monitors for transparency
  5. Structured logs — Send JSON with context (userId, orderId, etc.); Better Stack's SQL-like queries work best with structured data
  6. Alert fatigue prevention — Set appropriate thresholds; don't alert on single failures, use confirmation periods (2-3 consecutive failures)
  7. Maintenance windows — Schedule maintenance windows to suppress alerts during planned work
  8. Correlate logs with incidents — Link log sources to monitors; when an incident fires, jump directly to relevant logs

Information

Version
1.0.0
Author
terminal-skills
Category
DevOps
License
Apache-2.0