Monitoring Pingdom

Pingdom Monitoring Skill

Monitor and manage uptime checks, performance, and alerts using the Pingdom API.

API Conventions

Authentication

Pingdom API uses Bearer token authentication — injected by connection. Never hardcode tokens.

Base URL

https://api.pingdom.com/api/3.1/

Output Rules

• TOKEN EFFICIENCY: Target <=50 lines per output
• Use jq to extract check status and performance data
• NEVER dump full response histories — summarize with statistics

Core Helper Function

#!/bin/bash

pingdom_api() {
    local method="$1"
    local endpoint="$2"
    local data="${3:-}"

    if [ -n "$data" ]; then
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PINGDOM_API_TOKEN}" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            "https://api.pingdom.com/api/3.1${endpoint}" \
            -d "$data"
    else
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PINGDOM_API_TOKEN}" \
            "https://api.pingdom.com/api/3.1${endpoint}"
    fi
}

Parallel Execution

{
    pingdom_api GET "/checks" &
    pingdom_api GET "/alerts" &
    pingdom_api GET "/contacts" &
}
wait

Anti-Hallucination Rules

NEVER assume check IDs, check names, or contact IDs. ALWAYS discover first.

Phase 1: Discovery

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== All Checks ==="
pingdom_api GET "/checks" \
    | jq -r '.checks[] | "\(.id)\t\(.type)\t\(.status)\t\(.name)\t\(.hostname)"' | head -20

echo ""
echo "=== Check Types ==="
pingdom_api GET "/checks" \
    | jq -r '[.checks[].type] | group_by(.) | map("\(.[0]): \(length)") | .[]'

echo ""
echo "=== Alert Contacts ==="
pingdom_api GET "/contacts" \
    | jq -r '.contacts[] | "\(.id)\t\(.name)\t\(.notification_targets | keys | join(","))"' | head -10

Common Operations

Uptime Check Status Overview

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Check Status Summary ==="
CHECKS=$(pingdom_api GET "/checks")

echo "$CHECKS" | jq '{
    total: (.checks | length),
    up: [.checks[] | select(.status == "up")] | length,
    down: [.checks[] | select(.status == "down")] | length,
    paused: [.checks[] | select(.status == "paused")] | length
}'

echo ""
echo "=== Down Checks ==="
echo "$CHECKS" | jq -r '.checks[] | select(.status == "down") | "\(.name)\t\(.hostname)\tlast_response:\(.lastresponsetime)ms"'

echo ""
echo "=== All Checks with Response Times ==="
echo "$CHECKS" | jq -r '.checks[] | select(.status != "paused") | "\(.status)\t\(.lastresponsetime)ms\t\(.name)\t\(.hostname)"' \
    | sort | head -20

Performance Analysis

#!/bin/bash
CHECK_ID="${1:?Check ID required}"

echo "=== Performance Summary (30 days) ==="
FROM=$(date -d '30 days ago' +%s 2>/dev/null || date -v-30d +%s)
TO=$(date +%s)

pingdom_api GET "/summary.performance/${CHECK_ID}?from=${FROM}&to=${TO}&resolution=day" \
    | jq -r '.summary.days[] | "\(.starttime | strftime("%Y-%m-%d"))\tavg:\(.avgresponse)ms\tup:\(.uptime)s\tdown:\(.downtime)s"' \
    | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Average Response Time ==="
pingdom_api GET "/summary.average/${CHECK_ID}?from=${FROM}&to=${TO}" \
    | jq '{avgresponse_ms: .summary.responsetime.avgresponse, from: (.summary.responsetime.from | strftime("%Y-%m-%d")), to: (.summary.responsetime.to | strftime("%Y-%m-%d"))}'

Outage History

#!/bin/bash
CHECK_ID="${1:?Check ID required}"

echo "=== Outage History (30 days) ==="
FROM=$(date -d '30 days ago' +%s 2>/dev/null || date -v-30d +%s)
TO=$(date +%s)

pingdom_api GET "/summary.outage/${CHECK_ID}?from=${FROM}&to=${TO}" \
    | jq -r '.summary.states[] | select(.status == "down") | "\(.timefrom | strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"))\tto\t\(.timeto | strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"))\t\((.timeto - .timefrom) / 60 | floor)min"' \
    | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Uptime Percentage ==="
pingdom_api GET "/summary.average/${CHECK_ID}?from=${FROM}&to=${TO}&includeuptime=true" \
    | jq '.summary.status | {
        total_up: .totalup,
        total_down: .totaldown,
        uptime_pct: ((.totalup / (.totalup + .totaldown)) * 10000 | round / 100)
    }'

Transaction Checks

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Transaction Checks ==="
pingdom_api GET "/checks?type=httpcustom" \
    | jq -r '.checks[] | "\(.id)\t\(.status)\t\(.name)\t\(.lastresponsetime)ms"' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Transaction Check Steps ==="
CHECK_ID="${1:-}"
if [ -n "$CHECK_ID" ]; then
    pingdom_api GET "/checks/${CHECK_ID}" \
        | jq -r '.check | {name, type, status, steps: (.steps // [] | length)}'
fi

Alerting & Contact Management

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Recent Alerts ==="
pingdom_api GET "/actions?limit=20" \
    | jq -r '.actions.alerts[] | "\(.checkid)\t\(.status)\t\(.messagefull[0:60])\t\(.contactname)"' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Contacts ==="
pingdom_api GET "/contacts" \
    | jq -r '.contacts[] | "\(.id)\t\(.name)\t\(.notification_targets | to_entries | map("\(.key):\(.value | length)") | join(", "))"'

echo ""
echo "=== Teams ==="
pingdom_api GET "/teams" \
    | jq -r '.teams[] | "\(.id)\t\(.name)\t\(.members | length) members"' | head -10

Output Format

Present results as a structured report:

Monitoring Pingdom Report
═════════════════════════
Resources discovered: [count]

Resource       Status    Key Metric    Issues
──────────────────────────────────────────────
[name]         [ok/warn] [value]       [findings]

Summary: [total] resources | [ok] healthy | [warn] warnings | [crit] critical
Action Items: [list of prioritized findings]

Target ≤50 lines of output. Use tables for multi-resource comparisons.

Counter-Rationalizations

Common Pitfalls

• API version: Use /api/3.1/ — older versions are deprecated
• Timestamps: Unix epoch seconds for from/to parameters — not milliseconds
• Resolution values: hour, day, week for performance summaries — not arbitrary intervals
• Check types: http, httpcustom, tcp, ping, dns, udp, smtp, pop3, imap
• Rate limits: 7 requests/second — parallelize but add small stagger for >5 concurrent calls
• Paused checks: Paused checks return no performance data — filter with status != "paused"
• Contact types: email, sms, push notification targets — configure per contact
• Probe regions: Results vary by probe location — use include_teams=true for team-filtered results