Checkly CLI Skills

Comprehensive Checkly CLI command reference and Monitoring as Code workflows. Use when user mentions Checkly CLI, monitoring as code, synthetic monitoring, API checks, browser checks, Playwright testing, gRPC/SSL/traceroute monitors, check deployment, account plans, entitlements, organization usage, credits, or npx checkly commands. Routes to specialized sub-skills for auth, config, checks, monitors, testing, deployment, imports, account plan and usage, constructs, and advanced patterns. Triggers on checkly, monitoring as code, synthetic monitoring, checkly cli, npx checkly.

Comprehensive Checkly CLI command reference and Monitoring as Code (MaC) workflows.

The current Checkly CLI requires Node.js 22.13.0 or later. Verify node --version before install, init, test, or deploy workflows; upgrading only the project dependency does not bypass the CLI's host-runtime floor.

Choose CLI or MCP first

This skill pack drives npx checkly in a shell. Use the CLI for authoring, testing, importing, and deploying Monitoring as Code. Checkly MCP covers only a subset of live-account work: check status/results, test sessions, root-cause analysis, triggering deployed checks, and incidents.

Before the first command that talks to the Checkly API:

1. With shell access, run npx checkly whoami once.
   • If it succeeds, continue with the CLI, even when Checkly MCP tools are also connected.
   • If authentication fails, do not work around it for authoring, testing, imports, or deploys; authenticate with npx checkly login or CHECKLY_API_KEY plus CHECKLY_ACCOUNT_ID.
   • For supported live-account work only, an authenticated Checkly MCP connection may be used as a fallback. Call its whoami tool first and name the account being used.
2. Without shell access, use connected Checkly MCP tools only for their supported live-account operations. The MCP server cannot replace the CLI for Monitoring as Code.

Never mix CLI and MCP evidence without confirming that both sessions use the same account ID. A fallback write still requires the same explicit review/confirmation as the corresponding CLI action.

Run npx checkly skills before choosing a live CLI action. It loads the current action list locally and does not require Checkly authentication.

Quick start

bash

# Create new Checkly project
npm create checkly@latest

# Test checks locally
npx checkly test

# Deploy to Checkly cloud
npx checkly deploy

# Inspect Checkly's bundled CLI agent references when needed
npx checkly skills

What is Monitoring as Code?

The Checkly CLI provides a TypeScript/JavaScript-native workflow for coding, testing, and deploying synthetic monitoring at scale. Define your monitoring checks as code, test them locally, version control them with Git, and deploy through CI/CD pipelines.

Key benefits:

• Codeable - Define checks in TypeScript/JavaScript
• Testable - Run checks locally before deployment
• Reviewable - Code review your monitoring in PRs
• Native Playwright - Use standard @playwright/test specs
• CI/CD Native - Integrate with your deployment pipeline

Skill organization

This skill routes to specialized sub-skills by Checkly domain:

Getting Started:

• checkly-auth - Authentication setup and login
• checkly-config - Configuration files (checkly.config.ts) and project structure
• checkly-members - Account member and pending-invite listing, role updates, and removals
• checkly-usage - Account plan/entitlements plus organization contract terms, credit usage, projections, and grouped usage series

Core Workflows:

• checkly-test - Local testing workflow with npx checkly test
• checkly-deploy - Deployment to Checkly cloud
• checkly-import - Import existing checks from Checkly to code

Check Types:

• checkly-checks - API checks, browser checks, multi-step checks
• checkly-monitors - Heartbeat, TCP, DNS, URL, gRPC, SSL, and traceroute monitors
• checkly-groups - Check groups for organization and shared config

Advanced:

• checkly-constructs - Constructs system and resource management
• checkly-playwright - Playwright test suites and configuration
• checkly-advanced - Retry strategies, reporters, environment variables, bundling

Operations:

• checkly-members - Audit and manage Checkly account access with npx checkly members
• checkly-usage - Route account questions precisely: npx checkly account plan for plans, entitlements, feature limits, or private-location availability; npx checkly account usage terms/summary/series for organization contract credits and consumption
• checkly-test - Also covers npx checkly test-sessions for recorded test-session drilldown and RCA context
• checkly-checks - Inspect, run, and delete deployed checks with npx checkly checks; confirm live-run targets before checks run, and use checks delete --dry-run before destructive deletes
• checkly-assets - List/download result assets such as logs, traces, videos, screenshots, pcap, reports, and files for failure investigation

When to use Checkly CLI vs Web UI

Use Checkly CLI when:

• Defining monitoring as part of your codebase
• Automating check creation/updates in CI/CD
• Testing checks locally during development
• Version controlling monitoring configuration
• Managing multiple checks efficiently
• Integrating monitoring with application deployments

Use Web UI when:

• Exploring Checkly for the first time
• Viewing dashboards and historical results
• Analyzing check failures and incidents
• Managing account-level settings
• Configuring alert channels (email, Slack App, PagerDuty)
• Setting up private locations

Common workflows

New project setup

bash

# Initialize project
npm create checkly@latest
cd my-checkly-project

# Authenticate
npx checkly login

# Test locally
npx checkly test

# Deploy to cloud
npx checkly deploy

Daily development

bash

# Create new API check
cat > __checks__/api-status.check.ts <<'EOF'
import { ApiCheck, AssertionBuilder } from 'checkly/constructs'

new ApiCheck('api-status-check', {
  name: 'API Status Check',
  request: {
    url: 'https://api.example.com/status',
    method: 'GET',
    assertions: [
      AssertionBuilder.statusCode().equals(200),
      AssertionBuilder.responseTime().lessThan(500),
    ],
  },
})
EOF

# Test locally
npx checkly test

# Deploy when ready
npx checkly deploy

Browser check with Playwright

bash

# Create browser check
cat > __checks__/homepage.spec.ts <<'EOF'
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test'

test('homepage loads', async ({ page }) => {
  const response = await page.goto('https://example.com')
  expect(response?.status()).toBeLessThan(400)
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Example/)
  await page.screenshot({ path: 'homepage.jpg' })
})
EOF

# Test with Playwright locally (faster)
npx playwright test __checks__/homepage.spec.ts

# Test via Checkly runtime
npx checkly test __checks__/homepage.spec.ts

# Deploy
npx checkly deploy

Import existing checks

bash

# Preview generated code without creating a plan
npx checkly import --preview

# Create the plan and generated code
npx checkly import plan

# Review generated code
git diff

# Apply one reviewed plan, but keep it pending during PR review
npx checkly import apply --plan-id <plan-id> --no-commit

# After the generated code is merged into the deployment branch, preview commit
npx checkly import commit --plan-id <plan-id> --dry-run

Do not deploy generated import code before applying its plan: that can create duplicate resources. Keep the applied plan pending until the generated code is durable, then commit it through the confirmation protocol in checkly-import.

Agent-mode confirmation protocol

Write commands such as deploy, destroy, import commit, and import cancel return exit code 2 with status: "confirmation_required" in agent mode. Present the returned changes to the user, then run the returned confirmCommand verbatim only after explicit approval. Do not append --force yourself, remove flags that appear in the returned command, or assume parser-default flags are user intent.

Inspect deployed check failures

bash

# List failing checks
npx checkly checks list --status failing

# Inspect a deployed check and recent runs
npx checkly checks get <check-id>
npx checkly checks get <check-id> --output json

# Drill into an error group or specific result
npx checkly checks get <check-id> --error-group <error-group-id>
npx checkly checks get <check-id> --result <result-id>

When investigating a deployed failure, look for errorGroups, rootCause, or RCA fields in the output. If Checkly already surfaced Rocky AI root-cause analysis, reuse that context before suggesting additional debugging steps.

To trigger deployed checks rather than test local project definitions, route to checkly-checks for npx checkly checks run. This creates live check sessions using deployed locations and alerting rules, so confirm the intended check IDs or tags before running it; omitting selectors targets all deployed checks.

For alerting questions, use read-only JSON/API evidence before table output:

bash

npx checkly checks get <check-id> --output json
npx checkly api /v1/checks/<check-id>
npx checkly alert-channels list --output json --limit 100

Only fetch alert-channel details for channel IDs referenced by the selected check or matching group. If the check has a groupId, inspect groups once with npx checkly api /v1/check-groups and locate the matching group. Do not probe guessed account/global alerting endpoints; if output only shows useGlobalAlertSettings: true, say global alert settings are selected but their policy details were not available in the inspected CLI/API output.

Decision Trees

"What type of check should I create?"

text

What are you monitoring?
├─ REST API / HTTP endpoint
│  ├─ Simple availability → API Check (request + status assertion)
│  ├─ Complex validation → API Check (request + multiple assertions + scripts)
│  └─ Just uptime/ping → URL Monitor (simpler, faster)
│
├─ Web application / User flow
│  ├─ Single page → Browser Check (one .spec.ts file)
│  ├─ Multiple steps → Browser Check or Multi-Step Check
│  └─ Full test suite → Playwright Check Suite (playwright.config.ts)
│
└─ Service health / Infrastructure
   ├─ Periodic heartbeat → Heartbeat Monitor
   ├─ TCP port → TCP Monitor
   ├─ DNS record → DNS Monitor
   ├─ Simple HTTP → URL Monitor
   ├─ gRPC method / health service → gRPC Monitor
   ├─ Certificate / TLS posture → SSL Monitor
   └─ Network path / packet loss → Traceroute Monitor

Quick reference:

• API Check: HTTP requests with assertions (status, headers, body, response time)
• Browser Check: Single Playwright spec file for web testing
• Multi-Step Check: Complex browser workflows (legacy, use Browser Check instead)
• Playwright Check Suite: Multiple Playwright tests with projects/parallelization
• Monitors: Simple health checks without code execution

"Test locally or deploy?"

text

What stage are you at?
├─ Developing new check
│  ├─ Browser check → npx playwright test (fastest iteration)
│  └─ API check → npx checkly test (includes assertions)
│
├─ Ready to validate
│  └─ npx checkly test (runs in Checkly runtime, catches issues)
│
└─ Ready for production
   └─ npx checkly deploy (schedule checks to run continuously)

Testing hierarchy:

1. npx playwright test - Fastest, local Playwright execution (browser checks only)
2. npx checkly test - Validates in Checkly runtime, catches compatibility issues
3. npx checkly deploy - Deploys for continuous scheduled monitoring

"File-based or construct-based checks?"

text

How do you want to define checks?
├─ Auto-discovery (convention over configuration)
│  ├─ Browser checks → *.spec.ts files matching testMatch pattern
│  ├─ Multi-step → *.check.ts files with MultiStepCheck construct
│  └─ API checks → *.check.ts files with ApiCheck construct
│
└─ Explicit definition
   ├─ Programmatic → Construct instances in .check.ts files
   └─ Full control → Playwright Check Suite with playwright.config.ts

Patterns:

• Auto-discovery: Configure checks.browserChecks.testMatch in checkly.config.ts
• Explicit constructs: Import from checkly/constructs and instantiate
• Playwright projects: Define multiple test suites with different configs

"Where should configuration go?"

text

What are you configuring?
├─ Project-level (all checks)
│  └─ checkly.config.ts → defaults, locations, frequency, runtime
│
├─ Group-level (related checks)
│  └─ CheckGroup construct → shared settings for subset of checks
│
└─ Check-level (individual)
   └─ Check constructor → override defaults for specific check

Configuration hierarchy (specific overrides general):

1. Check-level properties (highest priority)
2. CheckGroup properties
3. checkly.config.ts defaults
4. Checkly account defaults (lowest priority)

Project structure

Typical Checkly CLI project:

text

my-monitoring-project/
├── checkly.config.ts          # Project configuration
├── __checks__/                # Check definitions
│   ├── api.check.ts           # API check construct
│   ├── homepage.spec.ts       # Browser check (auto-discovered)
│   ├── login.spec.ts          # Another browser check
│   └── utils/
│       ├── alert-channels.ts  # Shared alert channel definitions
│       └── helpers.ts         # Shared helper functions
├── playwright.config.ts       # Playwright configuration (optional)
├── package.json
└── node_modules/
    └── checkly/               # CLI package with constructs

Checkly bundled agent references

npx checkly rules is deprecated; use npx checkly skills instead when you need Checkly's bundled AI-agent documentation, actions, or reference snippets:

bash

npx checkly skills
npx checkly skills configure
npx checkly skills configure api-checks
npx checkly skills install

This repository is an external multi-skill package for agent clients. Do not rely on the deprecated checkly rules command when refreshing or installing these skills.

Installation methods

New project (recommended)

bash

npm create checkly@latest

Creates scaffolded project with:

• checkly.config.ts with sensible defaults
• Example checks in __checks__/ directory
• package.json with checkly dependency
• .gitignore configured

Existing project

bash

# Install as dev dependency
npm install --save-dev checkly

# Create configuration file
npx checkly init

Global installation (not recommended)

bash

npm install -g checkly
checkly test

Note: Use npx checkly instead for project-specific CLI version.

Related Skills

Getting started:

• See checkly-auth for authentication setup
• See checkly-config for project configuration
• See checkly-test for local testing workflow
• See checkly-usage for account plans, entitlements, contract credits, and usage reporting

Creating checks:

• See checkly-checks for API and browser checks
• See checkly-monitors for simpler health checks
• See checkly-playwright for full test suite setup

Advanced workflows:

• See checkly-deploy for deployment strategies
• See checkly-constructs for understanding the object model
• See checkly-advanced for retry strategies and reporters

Import existing:

• See checkly-import to migrate from web UI to code