Getting Started

This guide shows how to download, set up, and run the Synthetic Exporter.

1. Download Pre-compiled Binaries (Linux & macOS)

We publish pre-compiled binaries for Linux and macOS on every release.

Download the latest binary from the GitHub Releases page.

Make it executable and run it:

chmod +x synthetic-exporter-linux-amd64
./synthetic-exporter-linux-amd64 -config config.yaml

(Note: Playwright will download the Chromium browser automatically on the first run).

2. Docker (Cross-Platform)

The repository includes a multi-stage Dockerfile. It uses dumb-init to clean up Chrome processes. Docker is the easiest way to run the exporter.

Build and Run

docker build -t synthetic-exporter:latest .

Run the container with your environment variables. Mount your local config.yaml to /app/config.yaml:

docker run --rm -p 10050:10050 \
  -e APP_USERNAME="my_test_user" \
  -e APP_PASSWORD="my_secret_password" \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yaml:/app/config.yaml:ro \
  synthetic-exporter:latest

Docker Compose

You can also run the exporter using docker-compose. Create a docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3.8'

services:
  synthetic-exporter:
    image: synthetic-exporter:latest
    ports:
      - "10050:10050"
    environment:
      - APP_USERNAME=my_test_user
      - APP_PASSWORD=my_secret_password
    volumes:
      - ./config.yaml:/app/config.yaml:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

Then run:

docker-compose up -d

3. Running from Source (Windows / Dev)

If you use Windows or want to run the code locally, you can compile and run the exporter from source. It will download the headless Chromium browser automatically when it starts.

Prerequisites:

• Install Go 1.22+ from golang.org.
• Git.

Setup Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/aizik-fridman/synthetic-exporter.git
   cd synthetic-exporter

2. Set Environment Variables:

   # Linux / macOS
   export APP_USERNAME="my_test_user"
   
   # Windows (PowerShell)
   $env:APP_USERNAME="my_test_user"

3. Run the Exporter: Download the Go dependencies and start the exporter:

   go mod download
   go run main.go -config config.yaml -listen-address :10050

Once running, you can see the metrics at: http://localhost:10050/metrics.

CLI Flags

You can change the exporter's behavior using these CLI flags:

Flag	Default	Description
-config	config.yaml	Path to the YAML configuration file.
-listen-address	:10050	Address to expose the /metrics HTTP endpoint.
-check-interval	60s	Time between background synthetic checks (e.g., 30s, 1m).