Server Watch

Server Watch turns one Stream Deck key into a status light for a server you care about. The key stays green while the server responds and turns red once it stops, showing the latest response time and a trend of the recent checks. Press the key to open your console page, such as an AWS Lightsail dashboard or a hosting control panel, so the thing you check and the place you fix it sit on the same key.

How it works

The plugin runs the check from your own machine, on a schedule you set. There is no account, no API key, and no service in between.

How the target is checked is decided by how you write it, so you never have to pick a method from a list:

What you enter

How it is checked

https://example.com

Requests the page. A status below 400 counts as up

example.com:5432

Opens a TCP connection to that port

example.com

Sends a ping (ICMP)

Many cloud hosts block ICMP, so an https:// URL is usually the most reliable choice. The settings panel tells you which method your entry will use while you type it, so a typo is visible before you save.

Reading the key

Green — the last check succeeded. The key shows the response time in ms, or in seconds once it passes one second

Yellow — a check failed, but not often enough to call the server down

Red — the failures repeated. The key shows DOWN and how long it has been down (5m, 1h 30m, 2d 4h)

Grey — nothing is being watched yet

A single failed check never turns the key red. Three consecutive failures are needed by default, and that number is adjustable. A monitor that flashes red at every brief hiccup stops being read, so the colour is kept meaningful.

Along the bottom of the key runs a line of the recent response times. The line breaks where a check did not come back, so a server that has been slowing down, or one that drops out now and then, is visible on the key without opening anything.

Pressing the key

If you fill in the optional console URL, pressing the key opens it in your browser. It is meant for the page you would go to next when something looks wrong: your hosting dashboard, a status page, a log viewer. Leave it empty and pressing the key does nothing.

What is included

One key action, Server Watch

Six settings: target, display name, console URL, check interval, timeout, and failures before red

Response time, outage duration, and a trend line drawn on the key

Interface in English and Japanese, following the Stream Deck app language

Setting it up

Drag Server Watch onto a key

Enter the server to watch, for example https://example.com

Optionally enter a display name, and the console page to open when the key is pressed

Adjust the interval if you want checks more or less often than every 30 seconds

Nothing else is required. The key starts checking as soon as a target is entered.

Connections and data

The plugin connects only to the address you enter, and to nothing else. Before you enter one, it makes no network connections at all. Results stay on your own machine and are not sent anywhere. HTTP checks send an ordinary GET request identifying themselves as StreamDeck-ServerWatch, and the response body is discarded without being read.

The full source is published at https://github.com/kanade0525/streamdeck-server-watch

Requirements

macOS 12 or later

Stream Deck 6.9 or later

Works on keys. Dials and touch strips are not used

Good to know

Checks continue while you are on another Stream Deck profile, so the trend line stays unbroken

Several keys can watch different servers at once, each with its own interval and console page

The shortest interval is 10 seconds, so a watched server is never hammered

Fixes a startup failure.

Version 0.1 did not start when it was installed from Marketplace. The plugin read its own manifest file to find its version number, and on a Marketplace install that file cannot be read, so the plugin stopped before it began. The key stayed blank and no checks ran.

The version number now comes from the information Stream Deck passes at launch, and nothing reads the manifest while the plugin is running.

If you installed version 0.1, updating to this one is all that is needed. Your targets and settings are kept.