Better Stack Management Skill

Manage logs, uptime monitoring, and incidents using the Better Stack API.

API Conventions

Authentication

Better Stack API uses Bearer token — injected by connection. Never hardcode tokens.

Base URLs

• Uptime API: https://uptime.betterstack.com/api/v2/
• Logs API: https://logs.betterstack.com/api/v2/
• Use connection-injected BETTERSTACK_BASE_URL.

Output Rules

• TOKEN EFFICIENCY: Target <=50 lines per output
• Use jq to extract relevant monitor and log fields
• NEVER dump full API responses — always filter and summarize

Core Helper Function

#!/bin/bash

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

    if [ -n "$data" ]; then
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BETTERSTACK_API_TOKEN}" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            "https://uptime.betterstack.com/api/v2${endpoint}" \
            -d "$data"
    else
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BETTERSTACK_API_TOKEN}" \
            "https://uptime.betterstack.com/api/v2${endpoint}"
    fi
}

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

    if [ -n "$data" ]; then
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BETTERSTACK_API_TOKEN}" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            "https://logs.betterstack.com/api/v2${endpoint}" \
            -d "$data"
    else
        curl -s -X "$method" \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BETTERSTACK_API_TOKEN}" \
            "https://logs.betterstack.com/api/v2${endpoint}"
    fi
}

Parallel Execution

{
    bs_uptime_api GET "/monitors" &
    bs_uptime_api GET "/incidents" &
    bs_uptime_api GET "/heartbeats" &
    bs_uptime_api GET "/on-call-calendars" &
}
wait

Anti-Hallucination Rules

NEVER assume monitor IDs, source names, or team IDs. ALWAYS discover first.

Phase 1: Discovery

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Uptime Monitors ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/monitors" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.monitor_type)\t\(.attributes.status)\t\(.attributes.url // .attributes.ip)"' | head -20

echo ""
echo "=== Log Sources ==="
bs_logs_api GET "/sources" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.name)\t\(.attributes.platform)"' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== On-Call Calendars ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/on-call-calendars" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.name)"' | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Monitor Groups ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/monitor-groups" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.name)"' | head -10

Common Operations

Log Search

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Recent Logs ==="
bs_logs_api POST "/query" \
    '{"query":"level:error","from":"now-1h","to":"now","batch_size":20}' \
    | jq -r '.data[:20][] | "\(.attributes.timestamp[0:19])\t\(.attributes.level // "info")\t\(.attributes.message[0:80])"'

echo ""
echo "=== Log Volume by Source ==="
bs_logs_api GET "/sources" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.attributes.name)\t\(.attributes.logs_count // 0) total logs\t\(.attributes.platform)"' | head -15

Uptime Monitor Management

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Monitor Status Overview ==="
MONITORS=$(bs_uptime_api GET "/monitors")

echo "$MONITORS" | jq '{
    total: (.data | length),
    up: [.data[] | select(.attributes.status == "up")] | length,
    down: [.data[] | select(.attributes.status == "down")] | length,
    paused: [.data[] | select(.attributes.paused == true)] | length
}'

echo ""
echo "=== Down Monitors ==="
echo "$MONITORS" | jq -r '.data[] | select(.attributes.status == "down") | "\(.attributes.pronounceable_name)\t\(.attributes.url // .attributes.ip)\tdown_since:\(.attributes.last_checked_at)"'

echo ""
echo "=== Monitor Response Times ==="
echo "$MONITORS" | jq -r '.data[] | select(.attributes.status == "up") | "\(.attributes.pronounceable_name)\t\(.attributes.last_response_time // "N/A")ms"' \
    | sort -t$'\t' -k2 -rn | head -15

Incident Management

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Open Incidents ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/incidents?per_page=20" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | select(.attributes.resolved_at == null) | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.started_at[0:16])\t\(.attributes.cause)\t\(.attributes.name[0:50])"' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Recent Resolved Incidents ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/incidents?per_page=20" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | select(.attributes.resolved_at != null) | "\(.attributes.resolved_at[0:10])\t\(.attributes.duration)s\t\(.attributes.name[0:50])"' | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Incident Summary ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/incidents?per_page=100" \
    | jq '{
        total: (.data | length),
        open: [.data[] | select(.attributes.resolved_at == null)] | length,
        resolved: [.data[] | select(.attributes.resolved_at != null)] | length,
        avg_duration_s: ([.data[] | select(.attributes.duration != null) | .attributes.duration] | if length > 0 then add / length | round else 0 end)
    }'

Heartbeat Monitoring

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== Heartbeat Monitors ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/heartbeats" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.name)\t\(.attributes.status)\t\(.attributes.period)s interval"' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Failing Heartbeats ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/heartbeats" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | select(.attributes.status == "down") | "\(.attributes.name)\tlast_beat:\(.attributes.last_checked_at // "never")"'

On-Call & Escalation

#!/bin/bash
echo "=== On-Call Calendars ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/on-call-calendars" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.name)\t\(.attributes.default_calendar)"'

echo ""
echo "=== Escalation Policies ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/escalation-policies" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.id)\t\(.attributes.name)\tsteps:\(.attributes.steps | length)"' | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Policy Details ==="
bs_uptime_api GET "/escalation-policies" \
    | jq -r '.data[] | "\(.attributes.name):", (.attributes.steps[] | "  Step \(.step_number): wait \(.wait_before)s -> \(.targets | length) targets")'

Output Format

Present results as a structured report:

Managing Better Stack 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

Shortcut	Counter	Why
"I'll skip discovery and check known resources"	Always run Phase 1 discovery first	Resource names change, new resources appear — assumed names cause errors
"The user only asked for a quick check"	Follow the full discovery → analysis flow	Quick checks miss critical issues; structured analysis catches silent failures
"Default configuration is probably fine"	Audit configuration explicitly	Defaults often leave logging, security, and optimization features disabled
"Metrics aren't needed for this"	Always check relevant metrics when available	API/CLI responses show current state; metrics reveal trends and intermittent issues
"I don't have access to that"	Try the command and report the actual error	Assumed permission failures prevent useful investigation; actual errors are informative

Common Pitfalls

• Dual APIs: Uptime and Logs have separate base URLs — use the correct one for each resource type
• Monitor types: status, expected_status_code, keyword, keyword_absence, ping, tcp, udp, smtp, pop, imap
• Pagination: Uses per_page and cursor-based pagination — check pagination.next for more pages
• Rate limits: 250 requests/minute — stagger parallel calls for bulk operations
• Source tokens: Log sources have individual source tokens for ingestion — different from API token
• Incident lifecycle: Incidents auto-created by monitors — acknowledge or resolve via API
• Heartbeat URL: Each heartbeat has a unique URL for pinging — GET request to URL records a heartbeat
• Status pages: Managed separately via /status-pages endpoint — link monitors to status page resources