Quickstart Guide

Deploy Monitoring in Minutes

Enterprise-grade uptime for distributed systems

CLI v2.4.1 Last updated: Oct 12, 2024 • ~5 min read

1. Generate Your API Key

Secure authentication is the first step. SentinelPulse uses scoped API tokens for zero-trust access.

Navigate to Dashboard > Settings > API Keys. Click Generate New Token and scope it to monitor:write and status:read. Copy the secret immediately—it won't be displayed again.

Store it securely in your CI/CD vault or local environment. We recommend using SENTINELPULSE_API_KEY as the variable name across all deployment pipelines.

export SENTINELPULSE_API_KEY="sp_live_8f3a2c9d1e7b4f6a0c5d8e2f9a1b3c4d"

2. Install the SentinelPulse CLI

Cross-platform binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Handles monitor provisioning, health routing, and alert binding.

Run the official install script or fetch the precompiled binary from our releases page. The CLI validates your API key on first launch and configures local state automatically.

Supported architectures: amd64, arm64. Requires Go 1.21+ if building from source, but prebuilt binaries are recommended for production environments.

curl -fsSL https://install.sentinelpulse.io/v2 | sh
sentinel init --region us-east-1

3. Create Your First Monitor & Verify

Define an endpoint, set check intervals, and watch the first status payload land in real time.

Use the sp monitor create command to provision a new HTTP(S) or TCP monitor. Specify your target URL, check frequency, and expected status codes. The CLI returns a monitor ID immediately.

Run sp monitor status to poll the initial health check. You should see a 200 OK payload with latency metrics and geographic probe origin within 15 seconds.

sp monitor create \\\n --name "api-gateway-prod" \\\n --url "https://api.example.com/v1/health" \\\n --interval 60s \\\n --expected-status 200

sp monitor status --id mon_9x7k2p4q8w

Next Steps

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Configure Alert Routing

Bind PagerDuty, Slack, or webhook endpoints to your monitor groups. Set escalation policies and quiet hours.

📊

View Real-Time Dashboard

Monitor latency percentiles, packet loss, and SSL certificate expiration across all global probe nodes.

🛡️

Enable Synthetic Checks

Run multi-step browser workflows and API contract validation from 12 global regions.