Send monitoring alerts to Messageboard

When an alert fires, you want it somewhere visible, not buried in an email thread or a muted Slack channel. Messageboard gives you a persistent widget that shows the current state of any monitored service.

The pattern

Every monitoring alert maps to a Messageboard message with a stable name. When the alert fires, you POST a new version of that message with the alert details. When it resolves, you POST another version saying it is resolved.

alert fires    -> POST /api/messages { id: "service-health", content: "DB latency 2800ms" }
alert resolves -> POST /api/messages { id: "service-health", content: "DB latency normal (42ms)" }

The widget always shows the latest state. Your team sees the current answer at a glance.

Example 1: Node.js health-check script

const API_KEY = process.env.MESSAGEBOARD_API_KEY;
const MESSAGEBOARD_URL = "https://msgboard.tech/api/messages";

async function checkService(name, url, thresholdMs = 500) {
  const start = Date.now();
  try {
    const res = await fetch(url, { signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000) });
    const latency = Date.now() - start;

    const status =
      res.ok && latency < thresholdMs
        ? `${name} healthy — ${latency}ms`
        : `${name} degraded — ${latency}ms (HTTP ${res.status})`;

    await postStatus(name.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, "-"), status);
  } catch (err) {
    await postStatus(
      name.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, "-"),
      `${name} unreachable — ${err.message}`,
    );
  }
}

async function postStatus(messageId, content) {
  await fetch(MESSAGEBOARD_URL, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "x-api-key": API_KEY,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ id: messageId, content, contentType: "TEXT" }),
  });
}

Example 2: Generic webhook receiver

import express from "express";

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

const API_KEY = process.env.MESSAGEBOARD_API_KEY;
const MESSAGEBOARD_URL = "https://msgboard.tech/api/messages";

app.post("/webhook/alert", async (req, res) => {
  const { alert_name, status, details } = req.body;
  const content = `${alert_name} — ${status}: ${details}`;
  const messageId = alert_name.toLowerCase().replace(/[^a-z0-9]+/g, "-");

  await fetch(MESSAGEBOARD_URL, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "x-api-key": API_KEY,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ id: messageId, content, contentType: "TEXT" }),
  });

  res.sendStatus(200);
});

Example 3: Direct curl

curl -s -X POST https://msgboard.tech/api/messages \
  -H "x-api-key: $MESSAGEBOARD_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":"db-health","content":"Database connections normal","contentType":"TEXT"}'

Dashboard design tips

• Use one message name per service or check.
• Keep the message body short and human-readable.
• Include timestamps when freshness matters.
• Group critical services together in dashboard edit mode.

Continue with the quickstart or browse the full API reference.