Vibecode Honeycomb
track this build5 steps, step by step0%A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Honeycomb, collect sampled traces and query them through a constrained local store. The hard boundary is high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale, plus independent infrastructure and reliable alerting.
You are building a lean indie version of Honeycomb. Create the following project files first, then implement the application by following them. Keep the files updated as decisions change. Do not collapse this into a single README or prompt. ===== README.md ===== # Honeycomb indie build ## Goal Build the smallest trustworthy replacement for the core Honeycomb workflow for one developer or a tiny team. ## Scope Collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. ## Quick start 1. Install the documented dependencies. 2. Copy `.env.example` to `.env`. 3. Run the development command chosen during implementation. 4. Complete the acceptance checks in `BUILD_PLAN.md`. ## Honest limits This build deliberately does not replace: - high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale - global probe network - phone and SMS delivery - massive retention - advanced incident response and support If those capabilities are essential, use Uptime Kuma instead of pretending the gap is solved. ===== AGENTS.md ===== # Agent instructions - Optimize for a working, understandable weekend build. - Prefer the fewest moving parts that satisfy the brief. - Do not invent cryptography, security guarantees, APIs, or compliance claims. - Keep secrets out of source control and logs. - Add focused tests for destructive, security-sensitive, and data-loss paths. - Run the project checks before declaring the build complete. - Record any deliberate shortcut in the README under "Tradeoffs". ===== BUILD_PLAN.md ===== # Build plan ## Original build brief Build a closest honest personal substitute for Honeycomb in an empty repository. Use Go, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, a Next.js 15 dashboard, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Implement HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS-expiry, and heartbeat checks with explicit timeout and retry policies. Run checks from one independently hosted worker and store raw results plus incident state transitions. Send deduplicated alerts to email or one webhook destination with recovery notifications. Create services, maintenance windows, incidents, subscribers, and a public status page. Add bounded event ingestion for application errors with sampling and sensitive-field scrubbing. Provide health checks, retention settings, exports, backups, and a test-alert function. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Do not claim to reproduce proprietary data, network liquidity, regulated access, or frontier infrastructure. Deliberately leave out a worldwide probe network. Deliberately leave out phone, SMS, and managed on-call escalation. Deliberately leave out unbounded logs, enterprise observability, and vendor-operated incident response. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used. ## Required capabilities - server outside the monitored failure domain - PostgreSQL - optional ClickHouse - email or webhook destination - public HTTPS ## Delivery order 1. Scaffold the smallest runnable application and document its commands. 2. Implement the primary data model and core workflow. 3. Add validation, safe failure states, and persistence. 4. Cover the critical path with automated tests. 5. Exercise a clean install from the README and fix every missing step. ## Done when - A new user can go from clone to first successful workflow using only the README. - The core workflow works without paid infrastructure unless the brief requires it. - Tests cover the highest-risk behavior. - Known limitations are explicit rather than hidden. ===== .env.example ===== # Copy to .env and document every variable when it is introduced. # Never put real credentials in this file. APP_ENV=development # Add only values required by the selected implementation.
You are building a lean indie version of Honeycomb. Create the following project files first, then implement the application by following them. Keep the files updated as decisions change. Do not collapse this into a single README or prompt. ===== README.md ===== # Honeycomb indie build ## Goal Build the smallest trustworthy replacement for the core Honeycomb workflow for one developer or a tiny team. ## Scope Collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. ## Quick start 1. Install the documented dependencies. 2. Copy `.env.example` to `.env`. 3. Run the development command chosen during implementation. 4. Complete the acceptance checks in `BUILD_PLAN.md`. ## Honest limits This build deliberately does not replace: - high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale - global probe network - phone and SMS delivery - massive retention - advanced incident response and support If those capabilities are essential, use Uptime Kuma instead of pretending the gap is solved. ===== AGENTS.md ===== # Agent instructions - Optimize for a working, understandable weekend build. - Prefer the fewest moving parts that satisfy the brief. - Do not invent cryptography, security guarantees, APIs, or compliance claims. - Keep secrets out of source control and logs. - Add focused tests for destructive, security-sensitive, and data-loss paths. - Run the project checks before declaring the build complete. - Record any deliberate shortcut in the README under "Tradeoffs". ===== BUILD_PLAN.md ===== # Build plan ## Original build brief Build a closest honest personal substitute for Honeycomb in an empty repository. Use Go, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, a Next.js 15 dashboard, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Implement HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS-expiry, and heartbeat checks with explicit timeout and retry policies. Run checks from one independently hosted worker and store raw results plus incident state transitions. Send deduplicated alerts to email or one webhook destination with recovery notifications. Create services, maintenance windows, incidents, subscribers, and a public status page. Add bounded event ingestion for application errors with sampling and sensitive-field scrubbing. Provide health checks, retention settings, exports, backups, and a test-alert function. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Do not claim to reproduce proprietary data, network liquidity, regulated access, or frontier infrastructure. Deliberately leave out a worldwide probe network. Deliberately leave out phone, SMS, and managed on-call escalation. Deliberately leave out unbounded logs, enterprise observability, and vendor-operated incident response. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used. ## Required capabilities - server outside the monitored failure domain - PostgreSQL - optional ClickHouse - email or webhook destination - public HTTPS ## Delivery order 1. Scaffold the smallest runnable application and document its commands. 2. Implement the primary data model and core workflow. 3. Add validation, safe failure states, and persistence. 4. Cover the critical path with automated tests. 5. Exercise a clean install from the README and fix every missing step. ## Done when - A new user can go from clone to first successful workflow using only the README. - The core workflow works without paid infrastructure unless the brief requires it. - Tests cover the highest-risk behavior. - Known limitations are explicit rather than hidden. ===== .env.example ===== # Copy to .env and document every variable when it is introduced. # Never put real credentials in this file. APP_ENV=development # Add only values required by the selected implementation.
You are building a production product version of Honeycomb. Create the following project files first, then implement the application by following them. Keep the files updated as decisions change. Do not collapse this into a single README or prompt. ===== PRODUCT.md ===== # Honeycomb product brief ## Problem A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Honeycomb, collect sampled traces and query them through a constrained local store. The hard boundary is high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale, plus independent infrastructure and reliable alerting. ## Product outcome Collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. ## Target user A serious builder who needs a maintainable product foundation rather than a one-off demo. ## Required capabilities - server outside the monitored failure domain - PostgreSQL - optional ClickHouse - email or webhook destination - public HTTPS ## Explicit non-goals for v1 - high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale - global probe network - phone and SMS delivery - massive retention - advanced incident response and support ## Success criteria - The primary workflow is measurable end to end. - Setup is reproducible in a clean environment. - Failure, recovery, and support paths are documented. - Product claims match what the implementation actually guarantees. ===== ARCHITECTURE.md ===== # Architecture ## Starting brief Build a closest honest personal substitute for Honeycomb in an empty repository. Use Go, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, a Next.js 15 dashboard, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Implement HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS-expiry, and heartbeat checks with explicit timeout and retry policies. Run checks from one independently hosted worker and store raw results plus incident state transitions. Send deduplicated alerts to email or one webhook destination with recovery notifications. Create services, maintenance windows, incidents, subscribers, and a public status page. Add bounded event ingestion for application errors with sampling and sensitive-field scrubbing. Provide health checks, retention settings, exports, backups, and a test-alert function. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Do not claim to reproduce proprietary data, network liquidity, regulated access, or frontier infrastructure. Deliberately leave out a worldwide probe network. Deliberately leave out phone, SMS, and managed on-call escalation. Deliberately leave out unbounded logs, enterprise observability, and vendor-operated incident response. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used. ## Boundaries Separate the product into replaceable modules for interface, application logic, persistence, external integrations, and operational concerns. Keep domain logic independent from delivery frameworks and vendors. ## Production baseline - Configuration: validated at startup with safe local defaults where possible. - Security: least privilege, input validation, secret redaction, rate limits on abuse-prone paths, and no invented security primitives. - Data: explicit schema and migrations, transactional writes where integrity matters, backup and restore instructions. - Integrations: adapters around third-party providers, idempotent webhook or job processing, bounded retries, and timeouts. - Observability: structured logs with request or operation IDs, an error-tracking hook, and health/readiness checks where a server exists. - Quality: unit tests for domain rules, integration tests at module boundaries, and one end-to-end critical-path test. ## Decision records For each major dependency, document why it was chosen, its failure mode, and how it can be replaced. Do not introduce infrastructure until a requirement justifies it. ===== AGENTS.md ===== # Agent instructions - Read `PRODUCT.md` and `ARCHITECTURE.md` before changing code. - Implement milestone by milestone; keep each change reviewable and leave the application runnable. - Treat authentication, payments, encryption, imports, webhooks, and destructive actions as high-risk boundaries when present. - Never invent cryptography or silently weaken a requirement to make a test pass. - Use provider interfaces for external services and deterministic fakes in tests. - Add migrations and rollback or recovery notes for persistent data changes. - Log useful operational context without credentials, tokens, passwords, or personal data. - Update documentation and run all checks before completing a milestone. ===== MILESTONES.md ===== # Delivery milestones ## M0 — Decisions and scaffold - Confirm the runtime, persistence model, threat boundaries, and deployment target. - Create a reproducible local environment and continuous checks. ## M1 — Core workflow - Implement the smallest end-to-end product path with validation and tests. - Keep integrations behind interfaces. ## M2 — Trust layer - Add secure failure behavior, recovery paths, audit-relevant events, and data safeguards. - Test abuse cases and destructive operations. ## M3 — Operability - Add structured logs, error reporting hooks, health signals, backup/restore documentation, and deployment configuration. ## M4 — Release gate - Run a clean-install test, critical-path end-to-end test, dependency review, and documented rollback exercise. - Compare the shipped behavior with `PRODUCT.md` and publish remaining limitations. ===== OPERATIONS.md ===== # Operations ## Before release - Validate configuration and secrets at startup. - Define backup, restore, and rollback procedures and test them. - Document logs, error tracking, health signals, and alert ownership. - Set dependency update and vulnerability review expectations. ## Incident checklist 1. Contain the issue without destroying evidence or user data. 2. Record the timeline and affected scope. 3. Rotate exposed secrets and revoke compromised sessions or credentials. 4. Restore from a verified source when needed. 5. Document the root cause, remediation, and regression test. ## Launch constraint Do not market omitted Honeycomb capabilities as implemented. The v1 non-goals in `PRODUCT.md` remain user-visible limitations until they are deliberately delivered.
# Honeycomb indie build ## Goal Build the smallest trustworthy replacement for the core Honeycomb workflow for one developer or a tiny team. ## Scope Collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. ## Quick start 1. Install the documented dependencies. 2. Copy `.env.example` to `.env`. 3. Run the development command chosen during implementation. 4. Complete the acceptance checks in `BUILD_PLAN.md`. ## Honest limits This build deliberately does not replace: - high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale - global probe network - phone and SMS delivery - massive retention - advanced incident response and support If those capabilities are essential, use Uptime Kuma instead of pretending the gap is solved.
# Agent instructions - Optimize for a working, understandable weekend build. - Prefer the fewest moving parts that satisfy the brief. - Do not invent cryptography, security guarantees, APIs, or compliance claims. - Keep secrets out of source control and logs. - Add focused tests for destructive, security-sensitive, and data-loss paths. - Run the project checks before declaring the build complete. - Record any deliberate shortcut in the README under "Tradeoffs".
# Build plan ## Original build brief Build a closest honest personal substitute for Honeycomb in an empty repository. Use Go, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, a Next.js 15 dashboard, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Implement HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS-expiry, and heartbeat checks with explicit timeout and retry policies. Run checks from one independently hosted worker and store raw results plus incident state transitions. Send deduplicated alerts to email or one webhook destination with recovery notifications. Create services, maintenance windows, incidents, subscribers, and a public status page. Add bounded event ingestion for application errors with sampling and sensitive-field scrubbing. Provide health checks, retention settings, exports, backups, and a test-alert function. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Do not claim to reproduce proprietary data, network liquidity, regulated access, or frontier infrastructure. Deliberately leave out a worldwide probe network. Deliberately leave out phone, SMS, and managed on-call escalation. Deliberately leave out unbounded logs, enterprise observability, and vendor-operated incident response. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used. ## Required capabilities - server outside the monitored failure domain - PostgreSQL - optional ClickHouse - email or webhook destination - public HTTPS ## Delivery order 1. Scaffold the smallest runnable application and document its commands. 2. Implement the primary data model and core workflow. 3. Add validation, safe failure states, and persistence. 4. Cover the critical path with automated tests. 5. Exercise a clean install from the README and fix every missing step. ## Done when - A new user can go from clone to first successful workflow using only the README. - The core workflow works without paid infrastructure unless the brief requires it. - Tests cover the highest-risk behavior. - Known limitations are explicit rather than hidden.
# Copy to .env and document every variable when it is introduced. # Never put real credentials in this file. APP_ENV=development # Add only values required by the selected implementation.
# Honeycomb product brief ## Problem A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Honeycomb, collect sampled traces and query them through a constrained local store. The hard boundary is high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale, plus independent infrastructure and reliable alerting. ## Product outcome Collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. ## Target user A serious builder who needs a maintainable product foundation rather than a one-off demo. ## Required capabilities - server outside the monitored failure domain - PostgreSQL - optional ClickHouse - email or webhook destination - public HTTPS ## Explicit non-goals for v1 - high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale - global probe network - phone and SMS delivery - massive retention - advanced incident response and support ## Success criteria - The primary workflow is measurable end to end. - Setup is reproducible in a clean environment. - Failure, recovery, and support paths are documented. - Product claims match what the implementation actually guarantees.
# Architecture ## Starting brief Build a closest honest personal substitute for Honeycomb in an empty repository. Use Go, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, a Next.js 15 dashboard, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: collect sampled traces and bounded error or log events into a constrained local store, query them, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Implement HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS-expiry, and heartbeat checks with explicit timeout and retry policies. Run checks from one independently hosted worker and store raw results plus incident state transitions. Send deduplicated alerts to email or one webhook destination with recovery notifications. Create services, maintenance windows, incidents, subscribers, and a public status page. Add bounded event ingestion for application errors with sampling and sensitive-field scrubbing. Provide health checks, retention settings, exports, backups, and a test-alert function. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Do not claim to reproduce proprietary data, network liquidity, regulated access, or frontier infrastructure. Deliberately leave out a worldwide probe network. Deliberately leave out phone, SMS, and managed on-call escalation. Deliberately leave out unbounded logs, enterprise observability, and vendor-operated incident response. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used. ## Boundaries Separate the product into replaceable modules for interface, application logic, persistence, external integrations, and operational concerns. Keep domain logic independent from delivery frameworks and vendors. ## Production baseline - Configuration: validated at startup with safe local defaults where possible. - Security: least privilege, input validation, secret redaction, rate limits on abuse-prone paths, and no invented security primitives. - Data: explicit schema and migrations, transactional writes where integrity matters, backup and restore instructions. - Integrations: adapters around third-party providers, idempotent webhook or job processing, bounded retries, and timeouts. - Observability: structured logs with request or operation IDs, an error-tracking hook, and health/readiness checks where a server exists. - Quality: unit tests for domain rules, integration tests at module boundaries, and one end-to-end critical-path test. ## Decision records For each major dependency, document why it was chosen, its failure mode, and how it can be replaced. Do not introduce infrastructure until a requirement justifies it.
# Agent instructions - Read `PRODUCT.md` and `ARCHITECTURE.md` before changing code. - Implement milestone by milestone; keep each change reviewable and leave the application runnable. - Treat authentication, payments, encryption, imports, webhooks, and destructive actions as high-risk boundaries when present. - Never invent cryptography or silently weaken a requirement to make a test pass. - Use provider interfaces for external services and deterministic fakes in tests. - Add migrations and rollback or recovery notes for persistent data changes. - Log useful operational context without credentials, tokens, passwords, or personal data. - Update documentation and run all checks before completing a milestone.
# Delivery milestones ## M0 — Decisions and scaffold - Confirm the runtime, persistence model, threat boundaries, and deployment target. - Create a reproducible local environment and continuous checks. ## M1 — Core workflow - Implement the smallest end-to-end product path with validation and tests. - Keep integrations behind interfaces. ## M2 — Trust layer - Add secure failure behavior, recovery paths, audit-relevant events, and data safeguards. - Test abuse cases and destructive operations. ## M3 — Operability - Add structured logs, error reporting hooks, health signals, backup/restore documentation, and deployment configuration. ## M4 — Release gate - Run a clean-install test, critical-path end-to-end test, dependency review, and documented rollback exercise. - Compare the shipped behavior with `PRODUCT.md` and publish remaining limitations.
# Operations ## Before release - Validate configuration and secrets at startup. - Define backup, restore, and rollback procedures and test them. - Document logs, error tracking, health signals, and alert ownership. - Set dependency update and vulnerability review expectations. ## Incident checklist 1. Contain the issue without destroying evidence or user data. 2. Record the timeline and affected scope. 3. Rotate exposed secrets and revoke compromised sessions or credentials. 4. Restore from a verified source when needed. 5. Document the root cause, remediation, and regression test. ## Launch constraint Do not market omitted Honeycomb capabilities as implemented. The v1 non-goals in `PRODUCT.md` remain user-visible limitations until they are deliberately delivered.
$ choose a build depth, inspect the files, then open the complete pack in your agent · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR
People still pay for Honeycomb because monitoring must continue working during the exact outage it reports, which makes independent infrastructure and alert delivery the real product. The recurring cost buys probe geography, clocks, retries, deduplication, sampling, storage, paging, notification delivery, on-call rules, and its own uptime, not just the visible interface.
xhigh-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale
xglobal probe network
xphone and SMS delivery
xmassive retention
xadvanced incident response and support
Don't feel like building it? These folks already made it free.
all 3 free alternatives to Honeycomb →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
Honeycomb pricing
| plan | monthly | annual (per mo) | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| free | $0/workspace | — | 20 million events/month; 100 million metric datapoints/month; 2 triggers; 0 SLOs; unlimited seats |
| pro | $150/workspace | — | Starts at 50 million events + 250 million metric datapoints/month; 100 triggers; 2 SLOs; unlimited seats |
| enterprise | custom | — | Custom event volume; starts with 300 triggers and 100 SLOs plus enterprise controls |
free tier20 million events/month; 100 million metrics datapoints/month; 2 triggers; 0 SLOs; unlimited seats and querying
billingmonthly volume pricing; no public annual self-serve price shown
hidden costsPro starts at $150 but rises with event/metrics volume; Telemetry Pipeline is $0.10/GB and frontend performance, enterprise alerting and other modules are separate add-ons
verified 2026-08-14 · source ↗
Vibecode Honeycomb
Not really. Honeycomb's value is not the code: Recheck price before merge. See the honest breakdown above.
How much does Honeycomb cost?
Honeycomb's pricing is usage-based or varies by plan · Typical Pro starting monthly package; usage changes the amount..
What do I lose by replacing Honeycomb?
Honestly: high-cardinality telemetry engine, query experience, sampling expertise, and scale; global probe network; phone and SMS delivery; massive retention; advanced incident response and support. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Honeycomb?
Yes: OpenObserve (OpenTelemetry traces with logs, metrics and SQL-like querying; sampling is still your call.) HyperDX (OpenTelemetry traces with logs and a query UI; sampling is still your call.) Uptrace (Trace analysis and service maps on your own databases; high-cardinality magic is less magical.) All 3 curated free alternatives are at vibecodeit.com/honeycomb/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.