Creating a First Project & How to Use Projects

Who it's for: Workspace admins and project owners structuring monitors for teams or clients.
You’ll learn: Project setup, organisation strategies, collaboration controls, and automation tips.

• Introduction
• Steps to Create a Project
• Why Use Projects?
• How Can Projects Be Structured?

Introduction

Projects are the core organizational structure within the Acumen Logs platform, allowing users to efficiently manage and segment their monitoring tests. Whether you're conducting uptime monitoring, synthetic testing, API monitoring, SSL expiration checks, WHOIS lookups, heartbeat tests, or real user monitoring (RUM), all tests must be assigned to a project.

A project acts as a container for related tests, helping you group and manage them in a way that suits your needs—whether by website, client, business unit, or campaign.

Steps to Create a Project

1. Click "Create New Project" on the Projects Page.
2. Enter a Project Name (e.g., Client Websites, E-commerce Uptime, or MyBusinessWebsite.com).
3. Click "Save" to finalize.

Once the project is created, you'll be taken to the Project Dashboard, where you can view all your tests. You can now start creating your monitoring tests!****

Why Use Projects?

- Better Organization – Keep related tests grouped together.
- Easier Management – Quickly locate and manage tests for specific websites or clients.
- Scalability – Add new projects as your monitoring needs grow.
- Improved Reporting – View test results and performance metrics in a structured way.

How Can Projects Be Structured?

The flexibility of Projects allows you to tailor the setup to your needs. Here are some common ways users organize their projects:

By Website (Most Common for Individual Website Owners)

If you manage multiple websites, you can create a separate project for each one. This ensures that all monitoring related to a specific website is kept together.

Example:

Project: *MyBusinessWebsite.com*
- Uptime test for homepage availability
- Synthetic test for checkout process
- API test for login authentication
- SSL expiration monitoring
- WHOIS lookup for domain expiry**

By Client (Ideal for Web Hosting Companies or Agencies)

For businesses managing multiple client websites, grouping tests by client makes sense. Each client gets a dedicated project where all their monitoring data is stored.

Example:

Project: Client - ABC Corp
- Uptime test for abc-corp.com
- Synthetic test for abc-corp.com/contact form submission
- Real User Monitoring (RUM) to track performance
- WHOIS lookup for domain expiry

Project: Client - XYZ Media - Uptime test for xyzmedia.net
- API test for xyzmedia.net/api
- SSL expiration check for xyzmedia.net
- Heartbeat test for critical background processes

By Environment (Useful for DevOps & IT Teams)

If you manage staging, development, and production environments, you can create projects based on these segments. This ensures each environment is monitored independently.

Example:

Project: Production - E-Commerce App - Uptime test for storefront.com
- Synthetic test for storefront.com/checkout
- API test for storefront.com/api/orders
- Heartbeat test for backend services

Project: Staging - E-Commerce App - Uptime test for staging.storefront.com
- Load test for staging.storefront.com/cart
- Real User Monitoring (RUM) for performance evaluation

By Campaign or Business Initiative (For Marketing Teams & Enterprises)

If you’re running different marketing campaigns or business initiatives, you can structure projects to align with them. This ensures that web assets tied to each campaign are performing optimally.

Example:

Project: Summer Sales Campaign - Uptime test for landingpage.summersale.com
- Page speed test for summersale.com/deals
- Synthetic test for checkout conversion
- Real User Monitoring (RUM) to assess user experience

With Projects, you can tailor your monitoring setup to fit your workflow, ensuring that your digital assets remain operational, secure, and high-performing at all times.****

Project Management Essentials

• Rename or Archive: From the project actions menu, you can rename projects or archive them when a client or initiative wraps up. Archived projects retain their history and can be restored later.
• Duplicate for Speed: Clone an existing project, including its monitors and alert policies, to spin up consistent monitoring across similar environments.
• Tagging & Notes: Add internal notes or tags (e.g., priority:gold, contract:enterprise) so account managers and SREs can align on expectations.
• Maintenance Windows: Schedule suppression periods so alerts stay quiet during planned work. Each project can own its own calendar.

Working with Teams

• Invite Collaborators: Use the team settings to invite engineers, account managers, or customers and assign project-level roles (viewer, editor, admin).
• Least Privilege: Grant viewer access for read-only stakeholders and reserve admin for those who can change alerting or billing-sensitive items.
• Audit Trails: Project activity logs capture who updated journeys, thresholds, or integrations, giving you accountable change history.

Automating Project Operations

• API Access: Automate project creation and test provisioning using the Acumen Logs API. Common use cases include spinning up monitors alongside new infrastructure.
• GitHub Actions & CI/CD: Pipe synthetic run URLs into deployment pipelines so projects automatically validate releases before promoting to production.
• Integration Layer: Combine Zapier, webhooks, or the WHMCS module to keep CRM and billing systems synchronized with your monitoring inventory.

Troubleshooting & Best Practices

• Keep Project Names Descriptive: Include environment, application, and ownership in the project title (e.g., Shopfront - Prod - Growth Team).
• Review Monthly: Schedule a recurring task to review dormant monitors, expired certificates, and alert recipients.
• Document Playbooks: Link runbooks or incident response procedures directly in the project notes so on-call responders have context at hand.
• Monitor Health Score: Watch the project health indicators in the dashboard. A rising fail ratio might signal capacity issues, expired credentials, or misconfigured journeys.