uptime-kuma/CONTRIBUTING.md

Project Info

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has submitted issues or shared pull requests for Uptime Kuma. I never thought the GitHub community would be so nice! Because of this, I also never thought that other people would actually read and edit my code. Parts of the code are not very well-structured or commented, sorry about that.

Before you start, please read our Code of Conduct to understand our community standards.

The project was created with vite and is written in vue3. Our backend lives in the server-directory and mostly communicates via websockets. Both frontend and backend share the same package.json.

For production, the frontend is built into the dist-directory and the server (express.js) exposes the dist directory as the root of the endpoint. For development, we run vite in development mode on another port.

Directories

• config (dev config files)
• data (App data)
• db (Base database and migration scripts)
• dist (Frontend build)
• docker (Dockerfiles)
• extra (Extra useful scripts)
• public (Frontend resources for dev only)
• server (Server source code)
• src (Frontend source code)
• test (unit test)

Can I Create a Pull Request for Uptime Kuma?

Whether or not you can create a pull request depends on the nature of your contribution. We value both your time and our maintainers' time, so we want to make sure it's spent efficiently.

If you're unsure about any process or step, you're probably not the only one with that question—please feel free to ask. We're happy to help!

Different types of pull requests (PRs) may have different guidelines, so be sure to review the appropriate one for your contribution.

• Security Fixes (click to expand)

  Submitting security fixes is something that may put the community at risk. Please read through our security policy and submit vulnerabilities via an advisory + issue instead. We encourage you to submit how to fix a vulnerability if you know how to, this is not required. Following the security policy allows us to properly test, fix bugs. This review allows us to notice, if there are any changes necessary to unrelated parts like the documentation. PLEASE SEE OUR SECURITY POLICY.

• Small, Non-Breaking Bug Fixes (click to expand)

  If you come across a bug and think you can solve, we appreciate your work. Please make sure that you follow these rules:

  • keep the PR as small as possible, fix only one thing at a time => keeping it reviewable
  • test that your code does what you claim it does.

  _{Because maintainer time is precious, junior maintainers may merge uncontroversial PRs in this area.}

• Translations / Internationalisation (i18n) (click to expand)

  Please add all strings that are translatable to src/lang/en.json. If translation keys are omitted, they cannot be translated. Do not include any other languages in your initial pull request (even if it is your mother tongue) to avoid merge conflicts between Weblate and master. Once your PR is merged into master, the strings can be translated by awesome people donating their language skills.

  We use Weblate to localise this project into many languages. If you want to help translate Uptime Kuma into your language, please see these instructions on how to translate using Weblate.

  There are some cases where a change cannot be done directly in Weblate and requires a PR:

  • A text may not yet be localisable. In this case, adding a new language key via {{ $t("Translation key") }} or <i18n-t keypath="Translation key"> might be necessary.
  • Language keys need to be added to en.json to appear in Weblate. If this has not been done, a PR is appreciated.
  • Adding a new language requires creating a new file. See these instructions.

  _{Because maintainer time is precious, junior maintainers may merge uncontroversial PRs in this area.}

• New Notification Providers (click to expand)

  To set up a new notification provider these files need to be modified/created:

  • server/notification-providers/PROVIDER_NAME.js is where the heart of the notification provider lives.

    - Both `monitorJSON` and `heartbeatJSON` can be `null` for some events. If
    

  both are null, this is a general testing message, but if just heartbeatJSON is null this is a certificate expiry.

    - Please wrap the axios call into a
  

  try {
    let result = await axios.post(...);
    if (result.status === ...) ...
  } catch (error) {
    this.throwGeneralAxiosError(error);
  }
  

  • server/notification.js is where the backend of the notification provider needs to be registered. If you have an idea how we can skip this step, we would love to hear about it ^^

  • src/components/NotificationDialog.vue you need to decide if the provider is a regional or a global one and add it with a name to the respective list

  • src/components/notifications/PROVIDER_NAME.vue is where the frontend of each provider lives. Please make sure that you have:

    - used `HiddenInput` for secret credentials
    - included all the necessary helptexts/placeholder/.. to make sure the
    

  notification provider is simple to setup for new users. - include all translations ({{ $t("Translation key") }}, i18n-t keypath="Translation key">) in src/lang/en.json to enable our translators to translate this

  • src/components/notifications/index.js is where the frontend of the provider needs to be registered. If you have an idea how we can skip this step, we would love to hear about it ^^

  Offering notifications is close to the core of what we are as an uptime monitor. Therefore, making sure that they work is also really important. Because testing notification providers is quite time intensive, we mostly offload this onto the person contributing a notification provider.

  To make sure you have tested the notification provider, please include screenshots of the following events in the pull-request description:

  • UP/DOWN
  • Certificate Expiry via https://expired.badssl.com/
  • Domain Expiry via https://google.com/ and a larger time set
  • Testing (the test button on the notification provider setup page)

  
  

  Using the following way to format this is encouraged:

  | Event              | Before                | After                |
  | ------------------ | --------------------- | -------------------- |
  | `UP`               | ![Before](image-link) | ![After](image-link) |
  | `DOWN`             | ![Before](image-link) | ![After](image-link) |
  | Certificate-expiry | ![Before](image-link) | ![After](image-link) |
  | Domain-expiry      | ![Before](image-link) | ![After](image-link) |
  | Testing            | ![Before](image-link) | ![After](image-link) |
  

  _{Because maintainer time is precious, junior maintainers may merge uncontroversial PRs in this area.}

• New Monitoring Types (click to expand)

  To set up a new notification provider these files need to be modified/created:

  • server/monitor-types/MONITORING_TYPE.js is the core of each monitor. The async check(...)-function should:

    • in the happy-path: set heartbeat.msg to a successful message and set heartbeat.status = UP
    • in the unhappy-path: throw an Error for each fault that is detected with an actionable error message.
    • NEVER set heartbeat.status = DOWN unless you want to explicitly ignore retries.

  • server/uptime-kuma-server.js is where the monitoring backend needs to be registered. If you have an idea how we can skip this step, we would love to hear about it ^^

  • src/pages/EditMonitor.vue is the shared frontend users interact with. Please make sure that you have: - used HiddenInput for secret credentials - included all the necessary helptexts/placeholder/.. to make sure the notification provider is simple to setup for new users. - include all translations ({{ $t("Translation key") }}, <i18n-t keypath="Translation key">) in src/lang/en.json to enable our translators to translate this

  _{Because maintainer time is precious, junior maintainers may merge uncontroversial PRs in this area.}

• New Features / Major Changes / Breaking Bugfixes (click to expand)

  be sure to create an empty draft pull request or open an issue, so we can have a discussion first. This is especially important for large pull requests or when you don't know if it will be merged or not. When adding new features, please also add tests to ensure your changes work as expected and to prevent future regressions.

  _{Because of the large impact of this work, only senior maintainers may merge PRs in this area.}

• As a First-Time Contributor (click to expand)

  Contributing is easy and fun. We will guide you through the process:

  1. Fork the Uptime-Kuma repository and clone it to your local machine.
  2. Create a new branch for your changes (e.g., signal-notification-provider).
  3. Make your changes and commit them with a clear message.
  4. Push your changes to your forked repository.
  5. Open a pull request to the master branch of the Uptime Kuma repository.
     • For large changes, please open a draft pull request first to discuss the changes with the maintainers.
  6. Provide a clear and concise description of the changes you've made and link any related issues.
  7. Complete the PR checklist and make sure all CI checks pass.
  8. Request a review when your pull request is ready.

  When Can You Change the PR Status to "Ready for Review"?

  A PR should remain in draft status until all tasks are completed. Only change the status to Ready for Review when:

  • You have implemented all planned changes.
  • Your code is fully tested and ready for review.
  • You have updated or created the necessary tests.
  • You have verified that CI/CD checks pass successfully.

  A volunteer maintainer will review your PR as soon as possible. You can help us by reviewing other PRs or taking a look at open issues.

The following rules are essential for making your PR mergeable

• Merging multiple issues by a huge PR is more difficult to review and causes conflicts with other PRs. Please

  • (if possible) create one PR for one issue or
  • (if not possible) explain which issues a PR addresses and why this PR should not be broken apart

• Make sure your PR passes our continuous integration. PRs will not be merged unless all CI-Checks are green.

• Breaking changes (unless for a good reason and discussed beforehand) will not get merged / not get merged quickly. Such changes require a major version release.

• Test your code before submitting a PR. Buggy PRs will not be merged.

• Make sure the UI/UX is close to Uptime Kuma.

• Think about the maintainability: Don't add functionality that is completely out of scope. Keep in mind that we need to be able to maintain the functionality.

• Don't modify or delete existing logic without a valid reason.

• Don't convert existing code into other programming languages for no reason.

Continuous Integration

All pull requests must pass our continuous integration checks. These checks include:

• Linting: We use ESLint and Stylelint for code quality checks. You can run the linter locally with npm run lint.
• Formatting: We use Prettier for code formatting. You can format your code with npm run fmt (or CI will do this for you)
• Testing: We use Playwright for end-to-end tests and have a suite of backend tests. You can run the tests locally with npm test.

I (@louislam) have the final say. If your pull request does not meet my expectations, I will reject it, no matter how much time you spent on it.

We will assign your pull request to a milestone, if we plan to review and merge it.

Please don't rush or ask for an ETA. We have to understand the pull request, make sure it has no breaking changes and stick to the vision of this project, especially for large pull requests.

I'd Like to Work on an Issue. How Do I Do That?

We have found that assigning people to issues is unnecessary management overhead. Instead, a short comment stating that you want to work on an issue is appreciated, as it saves time for other developers. If you encounter any problems during development, feel free to leave a comment describing what you are stuck on. We are here to help.

Project Style

I personally do not like something that requires a lot of configuration before you can finally start the app. The goal is to make the Uptime Kuma installation as easy as installing a mobile app.

• Easy to install for non-Docker users

  • no native build dependency is needed (for x86_64/armv7/arm64)
  • no extra configuration and
  • no extra effort required to get it running

• Single container for Docker users

  • no complex docker-compose file
  • mapping the volume and exposing the port should be the only requirements

• Settings should be configurable in the frontend. Environment variables are discouraged, unless it is related to startup such as DATA_DIR

• Easy to use

• The web UI styling should be consistent and nice

Coding Styles

• 4 spaces indentation
• Follow .editorconfig
• Follow ESLint
• Methods and functions should be documented with JSDoc

Name Conventions

• Javascript/Typescript: camelCaseType
• SQLite: snake_case (Underscore)
• CSS/SCSS: kebab-case (Dash)

Tools

• Node.js >= 20.4.0
• npm >= 9.3
• git
• IDE that supports ESLint and EditorConfig (I am using IntelliJ IDEA)
• A SQLite GUI tool (f.ex. SQLite Expert Personal or DBeaver Community)

Git Branches

• master: 2.X.X development. If you want to add a new feature, your pull request should base on this.
• 1.23.X: 1.23.X development. If you want to fix a bug for v1 and v2, your pull request should base on this.
• All other branches are unused, outdated or for dev.

Install Dependencies for Development

npm ci

Dev Server

We can start the frontend dev server and the backend dev server in one command.

Port 3000 and port 3001 will be used.

npm run dev

But sometimes you may want to restart the server without restarting the frontend. In that case, you can run these commands in two terminals:

npm run start-frontend-dev
npm run start-server-dev

Backend Server

It binds to 0.0.0.0:3001 by default.

The backend is an express.js server with socket.io integrated. It uses socket.io to communicate with clients, and most server logic is encapsulated in the socket.io handlers. express.js is also used to serve:

• as an entry point for redirecting to a status page or the dashboard
• the frontend built files (index.html, *.js, *.css, etc.)
• internal APIs of the status page

Structure in /server/

• jobs/ (Jobs that are running in another process)
• model/ (Object model, auto-mapping to the database table name)
• modules/ (Modified 3rd-party modules)
• monitor_types/ (Monitor Types)
• notification-providers/ (individual notification logic)
• routers/ (Express Routers)
• socket-handler/ (Socket.io Handlers)
• server.js (Server entry point)
• uptime-kuma-server.js (UptimeKumaServer class, main logic should be here, but some still in server.js)

Frontend Dev Server

It binds to 0.0.0.0:3000 by default. The frontend dev server is used for development only.

For production, it is not used. It will be compiled to dist directory instead via npm run build.

You can use Vue.js devtools Chrome extension for debugging.

Frontend Details

Uptime Kuma Frontend is a single page application (SPA). Most paths are handled by Vue Router.

The router is in src/router.js

Most data in the frontend is stored at the root level, even though the router can navigate to different pages.

The data and socket logic are in src/mixins/socket.js.

Database Migration

See: https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma/tree/master/db/knex_migrations

Unit Test

To run unit tests, use the following command:

npm run build
npm test

Dependencies

Both frontend and backend share the same package.json. However, the frontend dependencies are eventually not used in the production environment, because it is usually also baked into dist files. So:

• Frontend dependencies = "devDependencies"
  • Examples: - vue, chart.js
• Backend dependencies = "dependencies"
  • Examples: socket.io, sqlite3
• Development dependencies = "devDependencies"
  • Examples: eslint, sass

Update Dependencies

Since previously updating Vite 2.5.10 to 2.6.0 broke the application completely, from now on, it should update the patch release version only.

Patch release = the third digit (Semantic Versioning)

If for security / bug / other reasons, a library must be updated, breaking changes need to be checked by the person proposing the change.

Spelling & Grammar

Feel free to correct the spelling and grammar in the documentation or code. English is not the native language of the maintainers.

Wiki

Since there is no way to make a pull request to the wiki, I have set up another repo to do that.

https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma-wiki

Maintainer

What is a maintainer and what are their roles?

This project has multiple maintainers who specialise in different areas. Currently, there are 3 maintainers:

Person	Role	Main Area
@louislam	senior maintainer	major features
@chakflying	junior maintainer	fixing bugs
@commanderstorm	junior maintainer	issue-management

Procedures

We have a few procedures we follow. These are documented here:

• Set up a Docker Builder (click to expand)

  - amd64, armv7 using local. - arm64 using remote arm64 cpu, as the emulator is too slow and can no longer pass the `npm ci` command. 1. Add the public key to the remote server. 2. Add the remote context. The remote machine must be arm64 and installed Docker CE.

  docker context create oracle-arm64-jp --docker "host=ssh://root@100.107.174.88"
  

  3. Create a new builder.

     docker buildx create --name kuma-builder --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm/v7
     docker buildx use kuma-builder
     docker buildx inspect --bootstrap
     

  4. Append the remote context to the builder.

     docker buildx create --append --name kuma-builder --platform linux/arm64 oracle-arm64-jp
     

  5. Verify the builder and check if the builder is using kuma-builder. docker buildx inspect kuma-builder docker buildx ls

• Release (click to expand)

  1. Draft a release note 2. Make sure the repo is cleared 3. If the healthcheck is updated, remember to re-compile it: `npm run build-docker-builder-go` 4. `npm run release-final` with env vars: `VERSION` and `GITHUB_TOKEN` 5. Wait until the `Press any key to continue` 6. `git push` 7. Publish the release note as `1.X.X` 8. Press any key to continue 9. Deploy to the demo server: `npm run deploy-demo-server`

  These Items need to be checked:

  • Check all tags is fine on https://hub.docker.com/r/louislam/uptime-kuma/tags
  • Try the Docker image with tag 1.X.X (Clean install / amd64 / arm64 / armv7)
  • Try clean installation with Node.js

• Release Beta (click to expand)

  1. Draft a release note, check `This is a pre-release` 2. Make sure the repo is cleared 3. `npm run release-beta` with env vars: `VERSION` and `GITHUB_TOKEN` 4. Wait until the `Press any key to continue` 5. Publish the release note as `1.X.X-beta.X` 6. Press any key to continue

• Release Wiki (click to expand)

  Setup Repo

  git clone https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma-wiki.git
  cd uptime-kuma-wiki
  git remote add production https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma.wiki.git
  

  Push to Production Wiki

  git pull
  git push production master
  

• Change the base of a pull request such as master to 1.23.X (click to expand)

  git rebase --onto <new parent> <old parent>