Operational is an open-source event tracking tool designed for tech teams to monitor critical events such as signups, webhooks, and cronjobs in real time. It delivers push notifications directly to your device via a Progressive Web App (PWA) and offers actionable insights through context-aware event grouping. Built with simplicity in mind, it avoids heavy dependencies like ClickHouse in its open-source version, making it lightweight and easy to self-host on any VPS. Operational is already in production use by tools like Swipekit and YouTube Description Extractor, proving its reliability for real-world monitoring needs.
What You Get
- Push notifications for critical events - Receive real-time alerts on your phone or desktop via PWA push notifications when signups, API calls, or cron jobs trigger events.
- Event contexts (events-in-events) - Bundle related events into hierarchical contexts to understand complex workflows, such as a user signup followed by payment and email confirmation.
- Webhook triggers via action buttons - Add interactive buttons to event notifications that trigger custom webhooks, enabling automated responses like sending a Slack message or restarting a service.
- Self-hosted deployment options - Deploy using Docker, Render.com, or direct VPS installation with minimal dependencies; no need for ClickHouse unless needed at scale.
- Progressive Web App (PWA) support - Use Operational as a mobile-friendly web app that receives push notifications even when closed, with offline-capable UI.
Common Use Cases
- Building a SaaS analytics dashboard - Track user signups, payment failures, and API usage across microservices and send real-time alerts to product teams via mobile push.
- Monitoring cronjobs in production - Detect failed scheduled tasks and immediately notify engineers with event context, including logs and timestamps, without external tools.
- Problem: Missing visibility into user activation flows → Solution: Operational - A team notices drop-offs after signups; they use Operational to track event sequences (signup → email verification → first action) and trigger alerts when users stall.
- DevOps teams managing multiple services - Use Operational to consolidate event monitoring from various services into one dashboard, with webhook actions to auto-restart containers or notify Slack channels.
Under The Hood
The operational.co project is a modern web platform built with a monorepo structure that integrates a Vue 3 frontend, Node.js backend, and shared components to support a feature-rich operational environment. It emphasizes reusability, modularity, and extensibility through its component-based architecture and layered backend design.
Architecture
This system adopts a modular monolithic approach with distinct workspaces for frontend, backend, and shared packages, enabling consistent development and code reuse.
- The monorepo structure supports multiple services and UI components in a unified codebase.
- The frontend is organized into Vue 3 components, dashboards, and CRM modules for maintainable UIs.
- The backend follows a layered architecture with routes, models, and services for clean API handling.
Tech Stack
The project leverages modern tools and frameworks to build a responsive, scalable web application with strong UI capabilities.
- The frontend is powered by Vue 3 and Vite, offering fast development and build times.
- The backend runs on Node.js with Express, supporting RESTful API interactions and database operations via Prisma.
- Key frontend dependencies include Pinia, Vue Router, and UI libraries like Chartist and D3 for data visualization.
Code Quality
The codebase presents a moderate level of quality with some structural and testing gaps.
- Test coverage is minimal, with no dedicated test files identified in the analysis.
- Error handling practices are inconsistent and often lack structured logging or user feedback.
- Code style and naming conventions vary, with no enforced standards across modules.
What Makes It Unique
The project stands out through its focus on PWA capabilities and extensible UI components.
- It integrates service workers using Workbox to support offline functionality and PWA features.
- A centralized configuration system and reusable component library enhance developer experience and maintainability.
- The modular structure allows for easy expansion and customization of UI elements and backend services.