How to Monitor APIs Without Building Your Own Tooling

You don't need to build custom API monitoring. Existing tools handle health checks, response validation, performance tracking, and alerting. Engineering time spent building monitoring is time not spent building your product.

Use the tools that exist. Build only what they can't do.

What API Monitoring Actually Requires

The Essentials

All of this exists in off-the-shelf monitoring tools.

What Might Need Custom Work

Even these often have tool-based solutions.

Setting Up API Monitoring (No Custom Code)

Step 1: Create Health Endpoints

Your API should have a health endpoint:

// Simple: Just confirms app is running
app.get('/health', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ status: 'up' });
});
 
// Detailed: Checks dependencies
app.get('/health/detailed', async (req, res) => {
  const db = await checkDatabase();
  const cache = await checkRedis();
 
  res.json({
    status: db && cache ? 'healthy' : 'degraded',
    database: db ? 'up' : 'down',
    cache: cache ? 'up' : 'down'
  });
});

Step 2: Add Monitors in Your Tool

In Wakestack (or similar):

Monitor 1: API Health
  URL: https://api.yoursite.com/health
  Method: GET
  Interval: 1 minute
  Expected: 200 OK
  Content contains: "up"

Monitor 2: User Endpoint
  URL: https://api.yoursite.com/v1/users/me
  Method: GET
  Headers: Authorization: Bearer <token>
  Interval: 5 minutes
  Expected: 200 OK

Step 3: Configure Alerts

Set up notifications:

• Slack for team awareness
• Email as backup
• PagerDuty for on-call (critical APIs)

Step 4: Set Response Time Thresholds

Warning: Response time > 2 seconds
Critical: Response time > 5 seconds

Step 5: Create Status Page

Add API as a component:

• API → Connected to health monitor
• Auto-updates when monitor status changes

Done. No custom tooling required.

API Monitoring Patterns

Pattern 1: Health Check Endpoint

Monitor a dedicated health endpoint:

GET /health → 200 {"status": "up"}

Use when: You want to verify the application is running

Monitoring setup:

• HTTP GET request
• Check for 200 status
• Optionally validate response body

Pattern 2: Authenticated Endpoint

Monitor an actual API endpoint with auth:

GET /v1/users/me
Authorization: Bearer <api-key>
→ 200 {"id": 123, ...}

Use when: You want to verify auth and business logic work

Monitoring setup:

• HTTP GET with auth header
• Check for 200 status
• Validate response contains expected fields

Pattern 3: Multi-Step Flow

Monitor a sequence (if your tool supports it):

1. POST /auth/login → Get token
2. GET /v1/users/me with token → Verify access

Use when: You need to test complete flows

Monitoring setup:

• Some tools support chained requests
• Or use Checkly/Playwright for browser automation

Pattern 4: Content Validation

Verify response data is correct:

GET /v1/status
→ {"version": "2.0", "features": ["auth", "payments"]}

Monitoring setup:

• Check response contains "version"
• Check response contains expected values
• JSON schema validation (some tools)

What Monitoring Tools Provide

Wakestack

Monitor your APIs — No custom code needed.

Other Options

When You Actually Need Custom Monitoring

Legitimate Reasons

1. Complex authentication — Multi-step OAuth that tools can't replicate
2. Business logic validation — Domain-specific checks
3. Internal protocols — gRPC, WebSocket, custom TCP
4. High-frequency checks — Sub-second intervals
5. Integration with internal systems — Custom alerting pipelines

How to Build Custom Monitoring (If Needed)

Keep it simple:

# simple_monitor.py
import requests
import time
 
def check_api():
    try:
        response = requests.get(
            'https://api.yoursite.com/health',
            timeout=10
        )
        if response.status_code != 200:
            alert(f"API returned {response.status_code}")
        if response.elapsed.seconds > 5:
            alert(f"API slow: {response.elapsed.seconds}s")
    except Exception as e:
        alert(f"API unreachable: {e}")
 
def alert(message):
    # Send to Slack, email, etc.
    requests.post(SLACK_WEBHOOK, json={"text": message})
 
while True:
    check_api()
    time.sleep(60)

But ask: does a tool already do this?

Common Mistakes

1. Building When Tools Exist

"We need to monitor our API, let's build a monitoring system."

Better: Use Wakestack, UptimeRobot, or Pingdom. Build your product instead.

2. Over-Engineering Health Checks

// Over-engineered
app.get('/health', async (req, res) => {
  const metrics = await gatherAllMetrics();
  const diagnostics = await runDiagnostics();
  const predictions = await analyzeHealth();
  // ... 100 more lines
});

Better: Simple check that confirms app is up.

3. Not Monitoring APIs at All

"Users will tell us if it's down."

96% of users leave without complaining. Monitor proactively.

4. Monitoring Only in One Location

Your US-West server might not see the EU outage.

Better: Multi-region monitoring.

5. Alert Fatigue From Too Many Checks

Monitoring every endpoint every 10 seconds = noise.

Better: Critical endpoints frequently, others less often.

Recommended Setup

Minimal Viable API Monitoring

1 health endpoint monitor
├── URL: /health
├── Interval: 1 minute
├── Alert: Slack + email
└── Status page: Connected

Total setup time: 5 minutes
Cost: $0-29/month

Comprehensive API Monitoring

Health endpoint
├── URL: /health
├── Interval: 30 seconds
├── Multi-region: 3 locations

Critical endpoints (3-5)
├── Auth: /v1/auth/token
├── Core: /v1/resource
├── Payments: /v1/checkout
├── Interval: 1 minute each

Response time tracking
├── Warning: >2s
├── Critical: >5s

Status page
├── Components: API, Auth, Payments
├── Auto-update from monitors

Total setup time: 30 minutes
Cost: $29/month

No custom code. All configuration.

Key Takeaways

• Don't build API monitoring—tools already exist
• Create health endpoints in your API
• Configure monitors in your chosen tool
• Set appropriate intervals and thresholds
• Build custom only for genuinely unique requirements
• Monitoring is infrastructure, not product work

Related Resources

• Uptime Monitoring Guide
• Best Uptime Monitoring Tools
• What Is Synthetic Monitoring