1. Platform Architecture Overview
SheetsDuty bridges high-concurrency edge infrastructure with Google Sheets productivity:
- Global Edge Monitoring Network: Dispatches synthetic HTTP pings with sub-15ms response latency from global edge PoPs, validating endpoint uptime status, latency, and SSL certificate validity.
- 24/7 Edge Scheduled Monitoring: Cloudflare edge cron triggers execute 1-minute automated uptime checks 24/7 without needing your spreadsheet or browser open.
- Hourly Sheet Sync & In-Session Mirroring: A background Apps Script trigger runs hourly to sync data, while the sidebar mirrors edge incidents whenever opened.
- Spreadsheet Control Panel: The glassmorphic HTML/JS sidebar (Sidebar.html) provides real-time triage controls, incident acknowledge/resolve actions, monitor registration, and manual overrides.
- Multi-Channel Alerts: Incident notifications are delivered via email and Slack or Microsoft Teams webhooks.
2. Spreadsheet Schema & Tab Reference
SheetsDuty automatically organizes your spreadsheet into three dedicated operational tabs:
2.1 _MONITORS Tab (Protected Internal Sheet)
Maintains all registered uptime endpoints and their operational status (managed via the sidebar Monitors panel):
| Column | Format | Description | Example Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitor URL | Text | The fully-qualified HTTPS or HTTP URL to monitor | https://api.yourdomain.com/health |
| Last Updated | Date / Time | Timestamp of the latest check execution | 2026-10-06 14:30:00 |
| Status | Text | Current operational status (UP, DOWN, PAUSED) | UP |
| SSL Status | Text | SSL/TLS certificate health and validation result | Valid |
| Webhook URL | Text | Optional comma-separated Slack or Microsoft Teams Incoming Webhook URLs (Pro Solo and Pro Team plans) | https://hooks.slack.com/services/... |
2.2 _ALERTS Tab (Team Roster & Email Verification)
Maintains team responders, escalation tiers, and email verification status (managed via the sidebar Team Roster panel):
| Column | Format | Description | Example Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Text | Full name of the team member | Alex Rivera |
| Responder alert email address | [email protected] | ||
| Escalation Level | Number | Escalation tier: 1 for Primary responder, 2 for Backup responder | 1 |
| Status | Text | Shows if the user's email is verified: Active (verified) or Pending Verification. Alerts are sent only to email-verified members. | Active |
| Last Alerted | Date / Time | Timestamp when an incident email was most recently dispatched to this responder | 2026-10-06 14:22:10 |
2.3 _INCIDENTS Tab (Visible Command Log)
The primary visible sheet providing an immutable audit trail and real-time triage log for all triggered incidents:
| Column | Format | Description | Example Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incident ID | Text | Unique sequential incident code | INC-1042 |
| Timestamp | Date / Time | Exact timestamp when uptime failure was recorded | 2026-10-06 14:15:02 |
| Monitor URL | Text | Address of the failing endpoint | https://api.yourdomain.com/health |
| State | Text | Current lifecycle state (OPEN, ACKNOWLEDGED, RESOLVED) | OPEN |
| Status Code | Number | HTTP response code received (e.g. 500, 502, 504, or 0 on timeout) | 502 |
| Latency (ms) | Number | Round-trip server latency in milliseconds | 4,120 ms |
| Resolved At | Date / Time | Timestamp when the incident recovered or was marked resolved | 2026-10-06 14:28:30 |
| Notes | Text | Error description or operator notes | HTTP 502 Bad Gateway |
| Acknowledged By | Text | Email of the responder who confirmed the incident | [email protected] |
2.4 _REPORTS Tab (Live Aggregates & Visual Charts)
Maintains automated uptime statistics and native charts generated from incident logs:
| Column | Format | Description | Example Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitor URL | Text | Unique monitored target address | https://api.yourdomain.com/health |
| Incident Count | Number | Total number of recorded outages for this endpoint | 4 |
| Total Downtime (min) | Number | Cumulative downtime duration in minutes | 18.5 |
| Spacer | Text | Visual column divider between summary tables | |
| Date | Date | Calendar day of recorded incident activity | 2026-10-16 |
| Daily Incidents | Number | Total incident count recorded on this calendar day | 2 |
3. Incident Lifecycle & Escalation Matrix
SheetsDuty manages incidents through a clear state machine:
Detection (Check Failure)
Global edge check detects a non-healthy HTTP response or connection timeout. The endpoint status transitions to DOWN in _MONITORS.
Incident Creation & Primary Alert
A new row is created in _INCIDENTS with state OPEN. An alert email is dispatched to the verified Primary Responder (Level 1) containing direct incident details and an Acknowledge button.
Escalation to Backup Responder
If the Primary Responder does not acknowledge the incident within the escalation window, the incident automatically escalates and pages the verified Backup Responder (Level 2).
Incident Acknowledgment
Clicking Acknowledge from the alert email or selecting Ack Selected in the SheetsDuty sidebar transitions state to ACKNOWLEDGED, recording the responder's email and stopping further escalation alerts.
Recovery & Resolution
When the target endpoint resumes returning healthy response codes or an operator clicks Resolve Selected in the Control Panel, state transitions to RESOLVED and the resolution timestamp is recorded.
4. Automated Reporting & Decision-Making Guide
SheetsDuty includes built-in reporting inside the visible _REPORTS tab. The add-on builds these reports automatically. You do not need to write complex formulas or build charts manually.
Report 1: Incident Count per Monitor URL
Chart Type: Native Bar Chart (Columns A & B).
What It Shows: This report displays the total number of outages for each monitored endpoint.
Why It Is Relevant: Frequency reveals service instability. Some endpoints experience frequent short failures. This report highlights unreliable endpoints across your infrastructure.
How To Read It: Look at the bar lengths. The longest bars indicate services with the highest incident counts. Check the numeric count in column B next to each URL.
How To Make Decisions:
- Investigate services with frequent outages first.
- Review server logs and network timeouts for high-incident endpoints.
- Add automatic retry policies or rate limiting to stabilize flaky services.
- Split overloaded API routes into separate microservices if failure rates stay high.
Report 2: Total Downtime (Minutes) per Monitor URL
Chart Type: Native Bar Chart (Columns A & C).
What It Shows: This report calculates the total accumulated downtime in minutes for each monitored URL.
Why It Is Relevant: Incident count alone does not tell the full story. A single 2-hour outage harms users more than five 30-second blips. This report measures your true business impact and SLA compliance.
How To Read It: Compare the downtime minutes in Column C and the corresponding bar chart. Focus on endpoints with the largest cumulative minutes.
How To Make Decisions:
- Calculate your exact monthly uptime percentage for SLA reports.
- Evaluate your Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). High downtime means recovery takes too long.
- Set up automated health check failover to standby servers for slow-recovering services.
- Review on-call escalation rules if responders take too long to resolve critical alerts.
Report 3: Daily Incident Trend
Chart Type: Native Line Chart (Columns E & F).
What It Shows: This report plots daily incident counts over time on a calendar timeline.
Why It Is Relevant: Time-series data reveals health trends. You can see whether your system stability is improving or degrading over time.
How To Read It: Follow the line across calendar dates. A low, flat line shows high stability. Sharp upward spikes show bad outage days.
How To Make Decisions:
- Compare incident spikes with code deployments and release dates.
- Roll back recent code changes if an incident spike follows a software deployment.
- Identify recurring weekly patterns, such as weekend batch jobs or traffic surges.
- Declare code freezes before high-traffic marketing events if trend lines show instability.
5. Autonomous Schema Self-Healing
If a collaborator accidentally modifies or deletes columns, formats, or tabs, you can easily repair the sheet:
- Open the SheetsDuty Control Panel via Extensions > SheetsDuty > Launch Control Panel.
- Under Manual Controls, click Run Self-Healing.
- The self-healing engine evaluates schemas against your spreadsheet and restores missing tabs, column headers, alignments, and sheet protections without touching or overwriting your existing data.
6. Quotas, Tiers & Execution Limits
| Tier | Monitors | Check Frequency | Escalation Support | Alert Channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Community | Up to 5 | 1 Minute | Primary Responder | Email Notification |
| Pro Solo | Up to 20 | 1 Minute | Primary + Backup Escalation | Email Notification |
| Pro Team | Up to 40 | 1 Minute | Primary + Backup Escalation | Email Notification |
Google Apps Script Execution: SheetsDuty batches spreadsheet updates to consume less than 3% of your daily Google Apps Script trigger budget.