Spectrix
Lightweight API monitoring system that performs scheduled endpoint checks, detects failures, and logs structured data for debugging and insights.
Timeline
4 weeks
Role
Full stack Developer
Team
Solo
Status
CompletedTechnology Stack
Key Challenges
- Scheduling endpoint checks efficiently
- Implementing retry logic with exponential backoff
- Real-time alert integrations (Slack/Discord)
- Encrypting sensitive webhook URLs
- Detecting incidents from repeated failures
- Managing multi-service architecture
Key Learnings
- Worker-based scheduling systems
- Retry strategies and timeout handling
- Webhook integrations and rate limiting
- Encryption at rest (AES-256-CBC)
- Incident detection algorithms
- Real-time monitoring patterns
Spectrix: API Monitoring System
Overview
Spectrix is a lightweight API monitoring system that performs scheduled endpoint checks, detects failures, and sends real-time incident alerts via Slack, Discord, and webhooks. It helps developers monitor their APIs without heavy observability tools.
Instead of manually checking if APIs are working, Spectrix automates the process and alerts you the moment something breaks.
What Developers Can Do
- Monitor Endpoints: Schedule HTTP checks for any endpoint (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE).
- Get Real-time Alerts: Receive incident alerts via Slack, Discord, or custom webhooks.
- Track Incidents: Automatic incident creation and resolution based on repeated failures.
- View Detailed Logs: Every check is logged with status codes, response times, and error types.
- Manage Services: Group endpoints under service base URLs for better organization.
- Configure Retries: Set custom retry counts (1-3 attempts) per endpoint.
- Control Check Intervals: Configure intervals per endpoint (minimum 10 seconds).
Why I Built This
I needed a simple way to monitor my APIs without paying for expensive observability tools like Datadog or New Relic. I wanted scheduled endpoint checks, failure detection, and instant alerts without complexity.
This project also helped me explore:
- Worker-based scheduling systems
- Retry logic and timeout handling
- Alert integrations (Slack, Discord)
- Encryption for sensitive data like webhook URLs
Tech Stack
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- Express.js
- MongoDB with Mongoose
- Next.js (App Router)
- React.js
- Tailwind CSS
- Axios for HTTP checks
- Zod for validation
After Build & Impact
- Successfully monitors 5+ production APIs in my personal projects
- Reduced incident response time from hours to minutes
- Saved $50+/month compared to paid monitoring services
- Gained deep understanding of worker systems and scheduling
- Learned production-grade encryption implementation
- Built a reusable monitoring pattern for future projects
Key Highlights
- Worker-based polling system with
nextCheckAtscheduling - Smart incident detection based on failure thresholds
- Encrypted webhook URL storage (AES-256-CBC with per-version keys)
- Real-time alerts to Slack, Discord, and custom webhooks
- Detailed logs with error categorization (DNS/timeout/network/HTTP)
- Clean dashboard to manage services, endpoints, incidents, and alert channels
- Test alerts during channel creation to verify configuration
Future Plans
- Add email notifications
- Create public status pages
- Add custom alert conditions
- Build charts and analytics dashboard
- Implement queue-based worker with Redis
- Add SMS alerts for critical incidents
- Support multi-region monitoring