Core Concepts8 min read

Status Page

Comprehensive guide to configuring and managing your public status page

Status Page

The Status Page is your public-facing communication hub for service health, incidents, and maintenance. It keeps customers and stakeholders informed with real-time updates, reducing support inquiries during incidents.

Why You Need a Status Page

Without Status Page With Status Page
Customers flood support with "Is it down?" tickets Customers self-serve status information
No transparency during outages Real-time incident updates build trust
Manual status communication Automated status from incident data
No historical uptime data 90-day uptime metrics visible

Accessing Your Status Page

  • Public URL: https://your-opsknight.com/status
  • Mobile URL: https://your-opsknight.com/m/status
  • JSON API: https://your-opsknight.com/api/status
  • RSS Feed: https://your-opsknight.com/api/status/rss

Configuring the Status Page

Navigate to Settings → Status Page to configure all options.

Basic Settings

Setting Description Required
Name Status page title (e.g., "Acme Status") Yes
Organization Name Brand name used in emails Yes
Enabled Toggle public visibility Yes
Footer Text Custom footer message No
Contact Email Support contact email No
Contact URL Link to support portal No

Display Options

Setting Default Description
Show Services true Display service health list
Show Incidents true Display incident history
Show Metrics true Display uptime percentages
Show Subscribe true Show email subscription form
Show Region Heatmap false Visual service health by region
Show Changelog false Recent updates feed

Branding & Themes

OpsKnight provides 40+ professional themes to match your brand identity.

Theme Categories

Professional Themes

  • Corporate Blue, Enterprise Gray, Slate Executive
  • Navy Silver, Indigo Mint, Boardroom Slate
  • Capital Ivory, Steel Harbor, Summit Teal

Colorful Themes

  • Aurora Bright, Redline, Ocean Glass, Sunset Bloom
  • Emerald Dawn, Royal Blueprint, Citrus Pop
  • Lavender Mist, Coral Reef, Neon Lime, Retro Pop

Dark Themes

  • Midnight Neon, Arctic Night, Desert Night

Custom Branding

Setting Description
Logo Upload your company logo (PNG, SVG)
Primary Color Main accent color (hex)
Text Color Text color override
Custom CSS Inject custom styles for advanced customization

Layout Options

Layout Description
Default Standard width, balanced spacing
Wide Full-width layout for large service lists
Compact Dense layout, more info above the fold

Toggle Elements

  • Header visibility (on/off)
  • Footer visibility (on/off)
  • RSS feed link (on/off)
  • API JSON link (on/off)
  • Uptime export links (on/off)
  • Auto-refresh interval (configurable)

Privacy Settings

Control what information is publicly visible with fine-grained privacy controls.

Privacy Presets

Mode Description Use Case
PUBLIC Show all information Default, maximum transparency
RESTRICTED Hide descriptions, show general status Balance of info and privacy
PRIVATE Minimal information, basic status only Sensitive environments
CUSTOM Mix-and-match individual settings Tailored requirements

Individual Privacy Controls

Incident Visibility

Setting Default (Public) Description
showIncidentDetails ✅ Full incident information
showIncidentTitles ✅ Incident titles
showIncidentDescriptions ✅ Incident descriptions
showIncidentTimestamps ✅ When incidents occurred
showIncidentUrgency ✅ Urgency levels
showAffectedServices ✅ Which services are impacted
showIncidentAssignees ❌ Who is working on it

Service Visibility

Setting Default (Public) Description
showServiceMetrics ✅ Uptime percentages
showServiceDescriptions ✅ Service descriptions
showServiceRegions ❌ Geographic regions
showServicesByRegion ❌ Group services by region
showServiceOwners ❌ Team ownership
showServiceSlaTier ❌ SLA tier badges

Advanced Visibility

Setting Default Description
showTeamInformation ❌ Team details
showCustomFields ❌ Custom field values
showUptimeHistory ✅ Historical uptime data
showRecentIncidents ✅ Recent incident list
showPostIncidentReview ❌ Link to postmortems
showRegionHeatmap ❌ Visual region status

Data Limits

Setting Default Description
maxIncidentsToShow 50 Maximum incidents on page
incidentHistoryDays 90 Days of incident history
dataRetentionDays - Data retention period

Service Display

Adding Services to Status Page

  1. Go to Settings → Status Page → Services
  2. Click Add Service
  3. Select services to display
  4. Configure display options per service

Per-Service Options

Option Description
Display Name Override the service name for public display
Order Position in the service list (drag to reorder)
Show on Page Toggle visibility per service

Service Status Indicators

Status Indicator Meaning
Operational 🟢 Green All systems normal
Degraded Performance 🟡 Yellow Partial issues, service usable
Partial Outage 🟠 Orange Some components unavailable
Major Outage 🔴 Red Service completely unavailable
Maintenance 🔵 Blue Planned downtime

Status is automatically calculated from active incidents affecting each service.

Uptime Metrics

The status page displays uptime percentages and SLA compliance for each service.

Metrics Displayed

Metric Description
30-Day Uptime Availability percentage over last 30 days
90-Day Uptime Availability percentage over last 90 days
Downtime Minutes Total downtime in the period
Incident Count Number of incidents in the period

SLA Badges

Badge Threshold (Default) Meaning
Excellent ≥ 99.9% Exceeding SLA targets
Good ≥ 99.0% Meeting SLA targets
Below SLA < 99.0% Missing SLA targets

Configuring Thresholds

Setting Default Description
uptimeExcellentThreshold 99.9 Percentage for "Excellent"
uptimeGoodThreshold 99.0 Percentage for "Good"

Uptime Export

Export uptime data for reporting:

  • CSV Format: /api/status/uptime-export?format=csv
  • PDF Format: /api/status/uptime-export?format=pdf

Announcements

Communicate proactively with scheduled maintenance and general updates.

Creating an Announcement

  1. Go to Settings → Status Page → Announcements
  2. Click Create Announcement
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Title: Announcement headline
    • Message: Detailed content (supports Markdown)
    • Type: Category of announcement
    • Start Date: When to show
    • End Date: When to hide (optional)
    • Affected Services: Services impacted

Announcement Types

Type Color Use Case
INFO Gray General updates, feature announcements
WARNING Orange Potential issues, deprecations
MAINTENANCE Blue Scheduled maintenance windows
INCIDENT Red Active incident communication
UPDATE Green Improvements, resolved items

Scheduling Maintenance

For planned maintenance:

  1. Create announcement with type MAINTENANCE
  2. Set Start Date to maintenance start time
  3. Set End Date to expected completion
  4. Select Affected Services
  5. Optionally link to a related incident

The announcement shows:

  • "Scheduled" badge before start time
  • "In Progress" during the maintenance window
  • Auto-hides after end time

Email Subscriptions

Allow users to subscribe for status updates via email.

How It Works

  1. User enters email on status page
  2. Verification email sent (prevents spam)
  3. User clicks verification link
  4. Subscribed users receive notifications for:
    • New incidents
    • Incident updates
    • Incident resolutions
    • Scheduled maintenance

Subscription Settings

Setting Description
Show Subscribe Toggle subscription form visibility
Email Provider Resend, SendGrid, or SMTP

Rate Limiting

Subscriptions are rate-limited to prevent abuse:

  • 10 requests per IP per minute
  • 3 requests per email per minute

Managing Subscribers

View and manage subscribers in Settings → Status Page → Subscribers:

  • See all verified subscribers
  • View subscription date
  • Remove subscribers if needed

Unsubscribe Process

  • Every email includes an unsubscribe link
  • Uses secure token (no login required)
  • Re-subscription is supported

Webhooks (Outbound)

Send status page events to external systems.

Creating a Webhook

  1. Go to Settings → Status Page → Webhooks
  2. Click Add Webhook
  3. Configure:
    • URL: Endpoint to receive events
    • Secret: HMAC signing secret (optional but recommended)
    • Events: Which events to send

Webhook Events

Event Trigger
incident.created New incident affecting status page services
incident.updated Incident status or details changed
incident.resolved Incident marked resolved
status.changed Overall status changed
maintenance.scheduled New maintenance announced

Webhook Payload

{
  "event": "incident.created",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-23T10:30:00Z",
  "data": {
    "incident": {
      "id": "inc_abc123",
      "title": "API Latency Elevated",
      "status": "OPEN",
      "urgency": "HIGH"
    },
    "affected_services": ["api-gateway", "payment-api"],
    "status_page": {
      "id": "sp_xyz",
      "name": "Acme Status"
    }
  }
}

Signature Verification

If a secret is configured, webhooks include an HMAC-SHA256 signature:

X-Webhook-Signature: sha256=abc123def456...

Verify by computing HMAC of the raw request body using your secret.

Testing Webhooks

Use the Test button to send a sample event to your endpoint.

API Access

Public Status API

Endpoint: GET /api/status

Returns current status without authentication:

{
  "status": "operational",
  "services": [
    {
      "name": "API Gateway",
      "status": "operational",
      "uptime_30d": 99.95,
      "uptime_90d": 99.87
    }
  ],
  "active_incidents": [],
  "scheduled_maintenance": []
}

API Tokens

For protected status pages or programmatic access:

  1. Go to Settings → Status Page → API Tokens
  2. Click Create Token
  3. Copy the token (shown only once)

Use in requests:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

API Rate Limiting

Setting Default Description
statusApiRateLimitEnabled false Enable rate limiting
Rate limit 120 req/60s Requests per minute

Requiring Authentication

Set requireAuth: true to gate the status page behind authentication.

Options:

  • OpsKnight login
  • SSO provider (via authProvider setting)

RSS Feed

Subscribe to status updates via RSS:

URL: /api/status/rss

The feed includes:

  • Active incidents
  • Recent updates
  • Scheduled maintenance

Compatible with:

  • Slack RSS integration
  • Microsoft Teams connectors
  • RSS readers
  • Monitoring tools

Custom Domain

Host your status page on a custom domain (e.g., status.yourcompany.com).

Configuration

  1. Set Custom Domain in status page settings
  2. Configure DNS:
    • CNAME: Point status.yourcompany.com to your OpsKnight instance
  3. Configure SSL certificate for the custom domain

Subdomain Option

Alternatively, use a subdomain of your OpsKnight installation:

  • Setting: subdomain
  • Result: yoursubdomain.opsknight-instance.com/status

Mobile Status Page

A mobile-optimized version is available at /m/status:

  • Touch-friendly interface
  • Optimized for small screens
  • Same data as desktop version
  • PWA-compatible

Best Practices

Communication

  • Be proactive: Post updates before customers notice
  • Be specific: "API response times elevated" not "Issues"
  • Be honest: Acknowledge impact, don't minimize
  • Be timely: Update every 15-30 minutes during incidents

Incident Phases

Use consistent phases in updates:

  1. Investigating — Aware of issue, determining scope
  2. Identified — Root cause found, working on fix
  3. Monitoring — Fix deployed, watching for recurrence
  4. Resolved — Issue fully resolved

Maintenance Planning

  • Schedule during low-traffic periods
  • Announce 24-72 hours in advance
  • Include expected duration
  • Send reminder 1 hour before

Privacy Considerations

  • Don't expose internal service names
  • Use customer-facing display names
  • Hide team/assignee info if sensitive
  • Consider RESTRICTED mode for B2B

Last updated for v1

Edit this page on GitHub