How I built my first AI Uptime Tracker as a "coding newbie"

Vicky Tsin — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 10:37:31 +0000

Hi DEV community! 👋

I’ve always been fascinated by the AI boom, but as someone who doesn't come from a heavy coding background, I often felt like a spectator. That changed recently when I got frustrated trying to figure out if my favorite AI tools were actually down or if it was just my internet connection.

Instead of just waiting, I decided to build a solution: AI Down Tracker.

Why I built this
Official status pages for AI platforms can sometimes lag, and community forums are often scattered. I wanted a clean, fast, and "zero-cache" way to verify if sites like ChatGPT, Claude, or AI Dungeon are reachable in real-time.

The Challenge (and the Learning)
Since I’m a "code newbie," this project was a huge learning curve for me. I had to figure out:

How to handle live connectivity checks without slowing down the site.
How to create a UI that is intuitive and ad-free.
How to monitor API health endpoints, not just web URLs.

It’s not perfect, but it’s my first "live" project, and I’m quite proud of it! 👉 AI Down Tracker

I’d love to get some feedback from this amazing community. What features should a simple tracker like this have?
Thanks for reading my first post! 🚀

Forem: Vicky Tsin

How I built my first AI Uptime Tracker as a "coding newbie"