Overview

Complete guide to the Checkly CLI for monitoring as code

The Checkly CLI gives you a JavaScript/TypeScript-native workflow for coding, testing and deploying synthetic monitoring at scale, from your code base. The Checkly CLI comes with native @playwright/test support. No lock-in, just write standard *.spec.ts files.

Starting your first project

Get started by installing the CLI using the following command which will guide you through the required steps to set up a fully working example.

Terminal

npm create checkly@latest

Now, login to your Checkly account or sign up for a new account right from the terminal.

Terminal

npx checkly login

After this, let’s dry run the Checks in your new project against the global Checkly infrastructure.

Terminal

npx checkly test

This should report the following output to your terminal

Running 4 checks in eu-west-1.

src/__checks__/api.check.ts
  ✔ Books API (222ms)
src/__checks__/home.check.ts
  ✔ Home page (24s)
  ✔ Login Check (5s)
src/__checks__/multi-step-spacex.check.ts
  ✔ SpaceX MS (4s)

4 passed, 4 total

Lastly, you deploy your Checks and related alert channels to Checkly, so we run your checks around the clock.

Terminal

npx checkly deploy

You just created your entire synthetic monitoring setup with API and Playwright-based Browser Checks from your code base! Open up your Checkly dashboard and you should see your check, ready to start monitoring around the clock.

For a custom installation check out our installation docs.

Using AI IDEs and Copilots

Checkly is designed to work with AI IDEs and Copilots. You can use your preferred provider to generate code for API Checks, Browser Checks and all other constructs.

GitHub Copilot

Download the Checkly instructions file and let copilot generate Checkly CLI code for you.

Cursor

Download the Checkly .mdc rules file and let Cursor generate Checkly CLI code for you.

Claude Code

Download the Checkly rules file and let Claude generate Checkly CLI code for you.

Integrating with CI/CD

After kicking the tires, you should delegate the testing and deploying of your checks to your CI/CD pipeline. Check our docs on setting up the Checkly CLI with your favourite CI/CD platform.

GitHub Actions

Run the Checkly CLI from GitHub Actions, export summary reports and integrate with mono repos

GitLab CI

Run the Checkly CLI from GitLab CI pipelines, using separate e2e-test and deploy jobs.

Jenkins

Run the Checkly CLI from a Jenkins pipeline using a Jenkinsfile.