Render Monitor

Monitor Render Services

Real-time monitoring of Render services including health checks, performance metrics, logs, database status, and resource usage. Supports both the Render MCP server (preferred, structured data) and the Render CLI (fallback for status and logs).

When to Use

Activate this skill when users want to:

• Check if one or more Render services are healthy
• View performance metrics (CPU, memory, latency, request count)
• Monitor or search service logs
• Verify a deployment is working or finished
• Investigate slow performance or elevated error rates
• Check PostgreSQL database health, connections, or slow queries
• Inspect Render Key-Value store status

Trigger keywords: Render status, service health, metrics, logs, latency, CPU, memory, deployment check, database health, slow queries, p95, error rate.

Prerequisites

MCP tools (preferred): Verify availability by calling list_services(). This returns structured data and is the richest path for metrics and database queries.

CLI (fallback): Verify with render --version. Use the CLI when MCP tools are unavailable. Note: metrics and database queries require MCP; the CLI covers status and logs only.

Authentication:

• MCP: API key set in the MCP config or via the RENDER_API_KEY environment variable, depending on the tool.
• CLI: Verify with render whoami -o json.

Workspace: Confirm the active workspace before querying services.

• MCP: get_selected_workspace()
• CLI: render workspace current -o json

HARD RULE: If list_services() fails because MCP is not configured, guide the user through MCP setup (below) before proceeding. Metrics and database queries are unavailable via CLI fallback.

Procedure

1. Confirm MCP availability and workspace

list_services()
get_selected_workspace()

If MCP is unavailable, fall back to CLI:

render services -o json
render workspace current -o json

2. MCP Setup (only if list_services() fails)

Ask which AI tool the user is on, then provide the matching steps. Always use their own API key—never hardcode.

Cursor

1. Get a Render API key: https://dashboard.render.com/u/*/settings#api-keys
2. Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (replace <YOUR_API_KEY>):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "render": {
      "url": "https://mcp.render.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Cursor, then retry list_services().

Codex

1. Get a Render API key: https://dashboard.render.com/u/*/settings#api-keys
2. Set in shell:

export RENDER_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"

3. Add the MCP server:

codex mcp add render --url https://mcp.render.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var RENDER_API_KEY

4. Restart Codex, then retry list_services().

Other Tools

Direct the user to the Render MCP docs for that tool's setup steps and install method.

Workspace Selection

After MCP is configured, have the user set the active Render workspace:

Set my Render workspace to [WORKSPACE_NAME]

3. Quick Health Check (5-step core path)

Run these five checks to assess service health. Replace <service-id> with the actual service ID from list_services().

# 1. Check service status
list_services()

# 2. Check latest deploy
list_deploys(serviceId: "<service-id>", limit: 1)

# 3. Check for errors
list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], level: ["error"], limit: 20)

# 4. Check resource usage
get_metrics(resourceId: "<service-id>", metricTypes: ["cpu_usage", "memory_usage"])

# 5. Check latency
get_metrics(resourceId: "<service-id>", metricTypes: ["http_latency"], httpLatencyQuantile: 0.95)

4. Service Health

Status

list_services()
get_service(serviceId: "<id>")

Deployments

list_deploys(serviceId: "<service-id>", limit: 5)

Errors

list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], level: ["error"], limit: 50)
list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], statusCode: ["500", "502", "503"], limit: 50)

5. Performance Metrics

Load references/metrics-guide.md when the user needs detailed metric interpretation, advanced filtering (by path, quantile, time window), or metric-specific thresholds beyond the summary tables below.

CPU & Memory

get_metrics(
  resourceId: "<service-id>",
  metricTypes: ["cpu_usage", "memory_usage", "cpu_limit", "memory_limit"]
)

HTTP Latency (p95)

get_metrics(
  resourceId: "<service-id>",
  metricTypes: ["http_latency"],
  httpLatencyQuantile: 0.95
)

Request Count

get_metrics(
  resourceId: "<service-id>",
  metricTypes: ["http_request_count"]
)

Filter by Endpoint

get_metrics(
  resourceId: "<service-id>",
  metricTypes: ["http_latency"],
  httpPath: "/api/users"
)

6. Database Monitoring

PostgreSQL Status

list_postgres_instances()
get_postgres(postgresId: "<postgres-id>")

Connection Count

get_metrics(resourceId: "<postgres-id>", metricTypes: ["active_connections"])

Query Database

query_render_postgres(
  postgresId: "<postgres-id>",
  sql: "SELECT state, count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity GROUP BY state"
)

Find Slow Queries

query_render_postgres(
  postgresId: "<postgres-id>",
  sql: "SELECT query, mean_exec_time FROM pg_stat_statements ORDER BY mean_exec_time DESC LIMIT 10"
)

Key-Value Store

list_key_value()
get_key_value(keyValueId: "<kv-id>")

7. Log Monitoring

Recent Logs

list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], limit: 100)

Error Logs

list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], level: ["error"], limit: 50)

Search Logs

list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], text: ["timeout", "error"], limit: 50)

Filter by Time

list_logs(
  resource: ["<service-id>"],
  startTime: "2024-01-15T10:00:00Z",
  endTime: "2024-01-15T11:00:00Z"
)

Stream Logs (CLI)

render logs -r <service-id> --tail -o text

8. CLI Fallback Quick Reference

Use these when MCP tools are unavailable. Metrics and database queries are not available via CLI.

# Service status
render services -o json
render services instances <service-id>

# Deployments
render deploys list <service-id> -o json

# Logs
render logs -r <service-id> --tail -o text          # Stream logs
render logs -r <service-id> --level error -o json   # Error logs
render logs -r <service-id> --type deploy -o json   # Build logs

# Database
render psql <database-id>                           # Connect to PostgreSQL

# SSH for live debugging
render ssh <service-id>

Pitfalls

• MCP not configured: If list_services() fails, do not attempt metrics or database queries via CLI—they are MCP-only. Walk the user through MCP setup first.
• Wrong workspace: Queries return services from the active workspace. Always confirm with get_selected_workspace() or render workspace current -o json before investigating "missing" services.
• Metrics require MCP: get_metrics, query_render_postgres, and get_postgres have no CLI equivalents. Do not invent CLI flags for them.
• Deploy status confusion: deactivated is normal—it means a newer deploy replaced the old one. Only build_failed indicates a problem.
• Latency quantile defaults: If httpLatencyQuantile is omitted, you may get average latency which hides tail spikes. Always specify 0.95 for p95.
• Log time filters: startTime and endTime must be ISO 8601 with Z suffix. Local time strings will fail silently or return empty results.
• pg_stat_statements availability: Slow-query detection requires the extension to be enabled on the PostgreSQL instance. If the query errors, inform the user.
• Never delete resources: This skill is read-only monitoring. Do not call any delete, scale-down, or teardown operations, even if a user asks during a debugging session—redirect to the deploy or debug skills.

Verification

After running monitoring checks, confirm results with these checkable outputs:

# Verify MCP connectivity
list_services()
# Expected: returns a list of services with ids, names, and status fields

# Verify deploy is live
list_deploys(serviceId: "<service-id>", limit: 1)
# Expected: status == "live"

# Verify no recent errors
list_logs(resource: ["<service-id>"], level: ["error"], limit: 20)
# Expected: empty or negligible error count

# Verify healthy resource usage
get_metrics(resourceId: "<service-id>", metricTypes: ["cpu_usage", "memory_usage"])
# Expected: CPU <70%, Memory <80%

# Verify p95 latency
get_metrics(resourceId: "<service-id>", metricTypes: ["http_latency"], httpLatencyQuantile: 0.95)
# Expected: <500ms for "Good" status

Healthy Service Indicators (summary)

References

• Metrics guide: references/metrics-guide.md — Load this file when the user needs detailed metric interpretation, advanced filtering by path/quantile/time window, or metric-specific thresholds beyond the summary tables in this skill.

Related Skills

• deploy: Deploy new applications to Render
• debug: Diagnose and fix deployment failures