Foundational Concepts

Building a solid foundation

This section of our documentation is dedicated to explanation. It’s not about quick fixes or step-by-step instructions. Instead, it’s here to help you build a deep understanding of uptime monitoring and the principles behind OpenStatus.

A solid mental model will empower you to use our tools more effectively, make better decisions for your own systems, and communicate with your team and stakeholders with clarity and confidence.

We’ll explore the “why” behind the “what,” covering core concepts, best practices, and the design philosophy that guides our development.

Core Concepts

Start here to grasp the fundamental building blocks of uptime monitoring.

• Uptime Monitoring: What is it, why does it matter, and how does it work?
• Uptime Calculation and Values: A look under the hood at how uptime percentages are calculated and what they truly represent.
• Latency vs Response Time: Untangle the difference between these two critical performance metrics.

Best Practices & Philosophy

Learn from experience and understand our approach to modern monitoring.

• Building Trust with Status Pages: How to communicate effectively during incidents and maintain user trust.
• Uptime Monitoring as Code: The why and how of managing your monitoring configuration in a GitOps workflow.

Have questions or want to discuss these concepts? Join our community and share your thoughts!