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Quickstart

Get one machine reporting into the console.

1. Sign in​

Open watchtower.page and sign in. On your first sign-in you are asked to read and accept the licence agreement — you have to scroll to the bottom before the checkbox will enable.

2. Create an API key​

Go to Account Settings → Security → API keys and select Create key.

Give it a name that says where it will be used (laptop, home-lab, office-rack). Leave the expiry blank unless you want the key to stop working on a date.

The key is shown once, in a dialog, with a copy button. Copy it now — it is stored hashed, so nobody can show it to you again. If you lose it, delete the key and create another.

It looks like wt_ followed by a long string.

Full details: Creating an API key.

3. Install and start the agent​

Install the agent on the machine you want to monitor — see Install the agent for your platform.

Then set two environment variables and run it:

export WT_API_KEY="wt_your_key_here"
export WT_APP_URL="https://watchtower.page"
export WT_BROKER_URL="wss://broker.watchtower.page/ws"
wt-agent
$env:WT_API_KEY = "wt_your_key_here"
$env:WT_APP_URL = "https://watchtower.page"
$env:WT_BROKER_URL = "wss://broker.watchtower.page/ws"
wt-agent.exe

On first run the agent registers itself, receives its own credential, and writes it to disk. It uses that credential from then on — the API key is only needed for that first registration.

4. Look at it​

Open Machines in the console. Your machine appears with its hostname.

Metrics stream while the card is on screen. If you scroll it out of view the agent stops sending after about twenty seconds, and resumes when you scroll back. That is deliberate — see What is Watchtower?.

If it does not appear​

Check the agent's output — it logs what it is doing. The most common causes are a mistyped key, a WT_APP_URL that does not match where you signed in, or IP rules on the key blocking the machine's address.

See Machine not appearing.

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