Quick Start Guide: Set Up Synthetic Monitoring in 5 Minutes

Get up and running with supaguard in under 5 minutes. By the end of this guide, you'll have a live synthetic monitor watching your application 24/7.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you'll need:

• A supaguard account (sign up free — no credit card required)
• A URL you want to monitor (your app, website, or API endpoint)

[!NOTE] supaguard's free Hacker plan includes 1,000 browser runs per month with unlimited team seats — more than enough to get started.

Step 1: Create an Account

1. Visit supaguard.com/signup
2. Sign up with your email or Google account
3. Verify your email address

Step 2: Create Your Organization

After signing in, you'll be prompted to set up your organization:

1. Enter your organization name (your company or project name)
2. Choose a URL slug (e.g., my-company) — this appears in your dashboard URL
3. Click Create Organization

[!TIP] Organizations are how supaguard groups checks, team members, and billing. Even solo developers should create an organization — you can invite teammates later at no extra cost.

Step 3: Create Your First Check

This is where the magic happens. You have two options:

Option A: AI-Generated Check (Recommended)

Let supaguard's AI write the monitoring script for you:

1. Click Create Check from the dashboard
2. Select "AI Generate"
3. Enter the URL you want to monitor
4. Describe the user flow in plain language:

   "Log in with email demo@example.com, verify the dashboard loads, and check the navigation menu works."

5. Watch the AI agent navigate your site in real-time
6. Review the generated Playwright script
7. Click Save & Enable

Option B: Manual Playwright Script

Write your own Playwright test if you need precise control:

1. Click Create Check → "Write Script"
2. Enter a descriptive name (e.g., "Homepage Load Test")
3. Write your Playwright test:

import { test, expect } from "@playwright/test";

test("homepage loads correctly", async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto("https://your-app.com");
  await expect(page.getByRole("heading", { level: 1 })).toBeVisible();
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Your App/);
});

4. Set the schedule (every 5, 10, or 15 minutes)
5. Choose locations to run from (US, Europe, India)
6. Click Create

Step 4: Set Up Alerts

Configure alerts so you know immediately when something breaks:

1. Go to Settings → Alert Policies
2. Click Create Policy
3. Choose your notification channels:
   • Email — Quick setup, good for getting started
   • Slack — Team-wide visibility
   • PagerDuty — On-call escalation
4. Set the trigger (e.g., "after 2 consecutive failures")
5. Enable recovery notifications to know when issues resolve
6. Save and assign the policy to your check

Step 5: Verify It Works

After saving your check, verify everything is configured correctly:

1. Go to Checks in the dashboard
2. Find your new check — it should show a "Running" status
3. Wait for the first execution (or click "Run Now" for an immediate test)
4. Check the result:
   • ✅ Healthy — Your check is running and passing
   • ⚠️ Degraded — Performance issues detected
   • ❌ Critical — Something is broken

[!IMPORTANT] If your first run fails, don't panic. Check Debugging Failures for common issues and solutions. The most common cause is a selector that doesn't match your current UI.

What's Next?

Now that you have a basic check running, expand your monitoring coverage:

• Write more Playwright tests — Cover additional user journeys
• Configure advanced alerts — Set up escalation rules
• Invite your team — Unlimited seats on all plans
• Explore Smart Retries — Learn how we eliminate false alarms
• Add Slack notifications — Get alerts where your team works