<b>Q: Should my status page be automated or manually updated?</b>

<b>Q: Should my status page be automated or manually updated?</b>

A: Both, in layers. Automate the component checks so the page reflects reality within a minute or two without anyone touching it. But keep a manual override for incident narrative, because customers don't want a green/red dot, they want "we know, here's what's happening, here's the ETA."

The non-obvious rule: host the status page somewhere your main infrastructure doesn't touch. A status page on the same server, DNS, or CDN as your app will go down exactly when you need it most, which looks worse than having none.

Follow-up: don't wire the public status page straight to raw monitor output. One flapping check shouldn't flip you to "major outage" and spook customers. Add a confirmation delay before a check changes the public status, same as you would for paging.

Got a question? Drop it in the comments.