Observability Starter Checklist: Field Kit

A small app does not need enterprise tooling. Structured logs, an error tracker, uptime checks, and a few sharp alerts cover most of what you need.

01See what happened

Log as structured data with consistent fields and sensible levelsA bare line like 'error here' cannot be searched or filtered during an incident.
Include request id, user, route, and duration in every log lineWithout context you cannot find the exact event that failed.
Generate a request id at the edge for every incoming requestWithout one, you guess which of a thousand interleaved lines belong together.
Thread that id through logs, errors, and downstream callsSearching one id should show a request's whole story, end to end.
Add an error tracker that captures exceptions with stack tracesOtherwise you only hear about bugs from customers angry enough to write in.
Attach the same context to captured errors that you logA reported failure should link straight to the request that caused it.

02Know it is healthy

Run external uptime checks on your critical endpointsYour own server cannot tell you it is down, so a customer tells you instead.
Alert when those checks fail or slow downAn uptime check nobody is notified about finds outages after the fact.
Track error rate, latency at p95, and throughputAverages hide the slow tail, and the slow tail is what users feel.
Consider a simple public status pageDuring an incident, support time goes to telling users you already know.

03Get alerted on what matters

Alert only on symptoms a human must act on nowAlerting on every blip trains you to ignore alerts, and real incidents get missed.
Cover three alerts first: error rate spike, p95 blowout, site downThese map to real problems, and fewer, sharper alerts keep you responsive.
Set grouping so duplicate errors form one issueOne bug arriving as a thousand alerts buries everything else.
Add a heartbeat for every cron job, queue, and syncA job that silently stops produces no error and looks identical to an idle one.
Alert when an expected success has not happened in its windowSilent failures make no noise, so you must watch for the missing event.

How to use this

Start with logging and the error tracker, then add uptime and alerts. A good result: any failure can be traced by one request id, you have three to five alerts in total, and every background job has a heartbeat.

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