How to vibe codeCheckly
The active reliability layer for developers & agents
checklyhq.com ↗Developer Tools & Monitoring
The verdict: can you vibe code Checkly?
You can build a personal dashboard wrapper and simple uptime ping worker, but orchestrating secure global Playwright sandboxes and low-drift scheduling takes serious engineering.
Checkly combines a TypeScript configuration parser, a multi-region scheduling queue, and isolated headless browser execution runners. While building a single-server HTTP pinger is straightforward, vibecoding a faithful multi-region synthetic monitoring cluster with real Playwright execution, OpenTelemetry trace ingestion, and Slack/PagerDuty routing requires wrestling with Docker container sandboxing, queue concurrency limits, and worker geographic distribution that will test your patience.
Estimated effort: 4-6 weeks of focused development
What you can't replicate
- Global infrastructure footprint spanning 22+ secure data center regions
- Enterprise compliance (SOC 2, SAML/SSO) and guaranteed 99.9% uptime SLA
- Massive multi-tenant test runner capacity processing millions of checks daily
Founded
2018
Raised
$32.3M
Team
~51
Cheapest paid tier
$0/mo
What Checkly does
Synthetic monitoring, uptime checks, and API tests defined as code and integrated into agentic workflows.
Core features
- HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, DNS, and ICMP ping monitoring engine
- Cron heartbeat (ping-based) monitoring with grace periods
- Playwright-powered synthetic browser check execution
- Monitoring as code (TypeScript/CLI parser and runner)
- Multi-channel alerting routing (Slack, Webhooks, PagerDuty)
- Public-facing status pages with component uptime status
- AI Root Cause Analysis diagnostics inspector
The business
Pricing
- Hobby$0/mo
- Starter$24/mo
- Team$64/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
Funding
$32.3M from Balderton Capital, Accel, CRV, Guillermo Rauch
Pay vs build, cumulative
Break-even at month 1 — after that, every month is money kept.
The hard parts of vibe coding Checkly
- Orchestrating distributed global runner nodes to execute sub-minute checks without execution drift
- Isolating, sandboxing, and resource-capping concurrent Playwright Chromium instances safely
- Capturing, structuring, and storing high-throughput OpenTelemetry traces alongside check failures
- Reliably dispatching webhook and notification alerts across third-party APIs without blocking workers
How to vibecode Checkly
Prerequisites
Node.jsfree
Required for runtime execution of Next.js dashboard and CLI runner daemon
GitHubfree
Code repository and CI/CD triggers for deployment
AI coding tools
Recommended stack
| Frontend | Next.js |
|---|---|
| Backend | Next.js API Routes & Node.js Worker Daemons |
| Database | Turso |
| Auth | better-auth |
| Payments | None |
| Other | Playwright, Tailwind CSS, Resend |
Build guide
01Database Schema & Project Scaffolding
Initialize the Next.js application, configure Tailwind CSS, set up Turso with Drizzle ORM, and define tables for checks, check runs, regions, and alert channels.
Scaffold a new Next.js 16 project using TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v4, and App Router. Set up Drizzle ORM connected to Turso. Create database schemas for 'checks' (id, name, type [HTTP, BROWSER, HEARTBEAT], url, frequency, locations, status), 'check_runs' (id, checkId, region, status, responseTime, error, timestamp), and 'alert_channels' (id, type, targetUrl). Implement better-auth for single-user authentication. Ensure clean modular file organization under src/db and src/app.02Uptime & Protocol Monitoring Engine
Build a Node.js worker service that periodically fetches target HTTP endpoints, measures latency, evaluates assertions, and logs results.
Create a background worker service in Node.js that queries active HTTP and API checks from Turso based on their frequency schedule. Implement robust fetch requests with timeout limits, status code validation, response time measurement, and assertion evaluation. Write results to the 'check_runs' table. Handle transient network errors by supporting a single automatic retry before flagging a check as failing.03Synthetic Browser Check Runner
Integrate Playwright inside an isolated worker process to execute multi-step user interaction scripts and capture error traces.
Implement a synthetic browser check execution module using Playwright. The module should accept a test script snippet or URL workflow, execute it within a headless Chromium sandbox with strict memory and timeout limits (30 seconds), and capture screenshots, console logs, and performance timings on failure. Store execution artifacts securely and report the run result back to the core database.04Heartbeat & Cron Monitoring
Implement push-based heartbeat endpoints that monitor background cron jobs and alert when expected signals are missed.
Build heartbeat monitoring endpoints in Next.js (/v1/heartbeat/[pingId]). Create database models to track expected ping intervals and grace periods. Implement a background cleanup routine that identifies missed heartbeats and automatically triggers failure events and alert routing when a cron job fails to check in on schedule.05Alert Routing & Status Pages
Build an alert dispatcher supporting Slack webhooks and email notifications, alongside a public status page frontend.
Create an alert dispatching engine that triggers webhook payloads to Slack channels and sends transactional notification emails via Resend when checks transition between passing and failing states. In parallel, build a public-facing status page route (/status/[slug]) that renders current system component health, uptime percentages, and active incidents based on recent check runs.06AI Root Cause Analysis & Dashboard UI
Build the monitoring dashboard UI and integrate Claude API to provide automated diagnostic explanations for failed test runs.
Build the main dashboard UI in Next.js with Tailwind CSS, featuring a list view of all checks, filterable by status and type, real-time availability graphs, and detailed run history tables. Integrate the Anthropic API to create a 'Rocky AI' diagnostic action button on failed check runs that inspects console logs, error messages, and network traces to generate a plain-language root cause explanation and suggested code fix.
Cost vs paying for Checkly
What will you build it with?
Starting total with Claude Code$0 one-time
Starting costs (one-time)
- Custom domain (optional)$12/yr
Total~$12 one-time
Ongoing costs (monthly)
- Fly.io worker compute$5/mo
- Turso database & Vercel$0/mo
Total~$5/mo
Paying for Checkly
$24/mo (Starter plan)
Your time to build
45-60 hours
AI tool credits
$20 (Claude Pro)
Break-even
Never (built for learning and personal infrastructure control)
Vibe code Checkly: FAQ
- Can you vibe code Checkly yourself?
- Serious undertaking — 45/100 vibecodeable. You can build a personal dashboard wrapper and simple uptime ping worker, but orchestrating secure global Playwright sandboxes and low-drift scheduling takes serious engineering.
- How long does it take to vibe code Checkly?
- 4-6 weeks of focused development — roughly 45-60 hours of hands-on time with an AI coding agent.
- How do you build your own Checkly?
- Scoped to personal use: Next.js on the front, Next.js API Routes & Node.js Worker Daemons behind it, Turso for data. Follow the 6-step build guide on this page — each step has a paste-ready prompt for an AI coding agent.
- How do you code your own Checkly without being an expert?
- Use an AI coding tool (Claude Code or Cursor) and work in small steps: scaffold, data model, core screens, then deploy. Realistic effort: 4-6 weeks of focused development. The prompts on this page are written so the AI does the heavy lifting.
- How much does it cost to vibe code Checkly instead of paying?
- About ~$12 one-time to start and ~$5/mo to run, versus $24/mo (Starter plan) for Checkly. Break-even: Never (built for learning and personal infrastructure control).
- What stack should you use to vibe code Checkly?
- Next.js; Next.js API Routes & Node.js Worker Daemons; Turso; plus Playwright, Tailwind CSS, Resend.