API Status Page Template
A template for a public API status page that communicates uptime, incidents, and maintenance windows to consumers.
Note: This guide follows English-language naming conventions and terminology standards common in international development teams. Examples use English identifiers and comments to maximize compatibility across codebases and tooling.
Best Practices
- Update every 15-30 minutes during active incidents — Silence makes consumers assume the worst
- Post scheduled maintenance 7 days in advance — Gives consumers time to prepare workarounds
- Use a separate domain —
status.example.commust not depend on the API it monitors - Offer RSS / email / Slack subscriptions — Let consumers choose how they receive updates
- Show historical uptime — A 30-day or 90-day chart builds confidence
- Be honest about degraded performance — Do not mark a service “operational” when latency is 10x normal
- Link to incident postmortems — Transparency after resolution builds long-term trust
Common Mistakes
- Using the same infrastructure as the API for the status page — if the API is down, the status page is down too
- Marking incidents resolved too early — wait until metrics confirm recovery for at least 10 minutes
- Deleting or editing resolved incident history — consumers need to reference past incidents
- Vague updates like “we are looking into it” — share what you know and what you do not know
- Not defining severity levels — consumers cannot gauge impact without clear severity definitions
Frequently Asked Questions
Should the status page be public or internal-only?
Public for customer-facing APIs. Internal-only for purely internal services. Public status pages reduce support tickets and demonstrate operational maturity.
How often should I update during an incident?
Every 15-30 minutes, even if there is no new information. A message like “Still investigating root cause, next update at 15:00 UTC” is better than silence.
What should I do if an incident exceeds the SLA?
Communicate proactively. Do not wait for customers to complain. Issue a summary explaining what happened, why it breached SLA, and what measures are being taken to prevent recurrence. Some companies offer service credits for SLA breaches.