Spectora: Website Monitoring Suite

Spectora Agency Edition is a highly specialized, self-hosted monitoring tool for agencies. It was designed to provide a central dashboard for all client domains – without dependency on third-party providers and with maximum data privacy.

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The "Google-Free" Philosophy

Unlike traditional monitoring tools, Spectora operates fully autonomously. All analyses take place locally within your container.

• No Google PageSpeed API Key: Audits are performed via local Lighthouse CLI and Chromium.
• No Google Fonts: We use a modern System Font Stack. No external requests, no tracking cookies, maximum loading speed.
• No CDNs: All scripts (including Alpine.js) are bundled locally.
• Private Search Engine Crawler: Our watchdog identifies itself as SpectoraBot to perform security checks without masquerading.

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Core Features

1. Uptime & Performance Monitoring

Real-time monitoring of availability and latency for your domains.

• Interval: Every 15 minutes (configurable).
• Lighthouse Audits: Full performance scores (Desktop/Mobile) generated directly within your container.

2. Security Watchdog

An intelligent scanner that checks websites for typical threats:

• Malware Keywords: Scans for pharma-spam, gambling content, and malicious keywords.
• SEO Check: Inspects for display:none manipulations and hidden links.
• Verification Checks: Validates Search Console meta tags.

3. SSL & Domain Health

• SSL Status: Displays the remaining validity days of your certificates.
• Health Report: Color-coded dashboard for an immediate overview of critical issues.

4. Agency Reporting

Generate professional reports for your clients directly from the dashboard.

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Technical Architecture

Spectora utilizes a modern, dockerized setup that includes all necessary dependencies for local audits.

graph TD
    A[Spectora App Container] --> B[Apache / PHP 8.4]
    A --> C[Laravel Scheduler / Cron]
    A --> D[Lighthouse CLI]
    A --> E[Chromium Headless]
    
    C --> F[Uptime Check Job]
    C --> G[Local Lighthouse Job]
    
    G --> D
    D --> E
    E --> H[Target Website]
    
    B --> I[(Local SQLite DB)]

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Installation

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Hardware: Minimum 2 GB RAM (required for Chromium/Lighthouse processes)

1. Clone & Start

git clone https://github.com/Everlite/Spectora.git
cd Spectora
docker compose up -d --build

The entrypoint script automatically handles:

• .env creation from .env.example
• APP_KEY generation
• Database migrations
• Storage link creation

The application is now accessible at http://localhost:8000.

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Configuration (.env)

Since Spectora uses no external APIs, configuration is minimal:

• DB_CONNECTION=sqlite: Pre-configured by default.
• MAIL_*: Configuration for sending reports.
• No API key required for PageSpeed!

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Production Deployment & Analytics Tracking

By default, Spectora is accessible at http://localhost:8000. If you want to use the Analytics Tracking feature (to track visitors on your clients' websites), your Spectora dashboard must be publicly accessible via a real domain/subdomain (e.g., spectora.your-agency.com).

1. Why a Public Domain is Required

Tracking external websites from a localhost instance is technically impossible because the client's browser wouldn't be able to reach your Spectora server to "sync" the visitor data. For global tracking, Spectora must be reachable via a public IP and a registered DNS record.

2. DNS & Subdomain Setup

1. A-Record: Create an A-Record (e.g., spectora.your-agency.com) pointing to your server's public IP.
2. Subdomain vs. Main Domain: We recommend using a dedicated subdomain so your main agency site remains independent.

3. Update .env

On your server, modify the .env file to set your public URL. This is crucial for the tracking script (sp-core.js) to generate correct absolute URLs:

APP_URL=https://spectora.your-agency.com

4. Implementation Logic

Once Spectora is public, you can generate a Tracking Snippet in the domain's analytics tab.

• The Snippet: <script src="https://spectora.your-agency.com/js/sp-core.js" data-domain="..." defer></script>
• Automatic Host Detection: The sp-core.js script is intelligent; it automatically detects its own origin and sends data back to your Spectora /api/sync endpoint, regardless of which client site it's embedded on.

5. Nginx & SSL (HTTPS)

For modern browsers to allow cross-domain tracking, HTTPS is mandatory. install Nginx and secure it with Certbot:

# Install Nginx & Certbot
apt update && apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

# Setup SSL
certbot --nginx -d spectora.your-agency.com

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Analytics: Privacy-by-Design

The Spectora tracking engine was built with the GDPR in mind. It provides accurate stats without compromising visitor privacy:

• No Cookies: We do not use any tracking cookies.
• Anonymized Hashing: Visitors are identified via a rotating daily hash composed of IP + UserAgent + Date + APP_KEY. This allows unique visitor counting without storing personally identifiable information (PII).
• No Third Parties: No data ever leaves your server. Unlike Google Analytics, your client data is 100% yours.

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Data Privacy & GDPR

Spectora is the ideal choice for European agencies:

1. Data Sovereignty: All analytical data remains within your own infrastructure.
2. Zero Tracking: No integration of Google Analytics, Fonts, or Maps in the dashboard.
3. Client Security: Your client data is never transmitted to Google servers for analysis.

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License & Credits

Developed for agencies that value privacy and independence.

Recent Updates

• Infrastructure: Upgraded core framework to Laravel 12.

• Monitoring Engine: Optimized CheckUrlJob and CheckDomainJob for precise status tracking and preventing database race-conditions.

• Dashboard UI: Restored HTML structural integrity for absolute tab-isolation (Monitoring vs. Analytics) and separated Chart.js tracking instances.

• Framework: Laravel 12

• Frontend: Alpine.js & Tailwind CSS

• Monitoring: Lighthouse (Local Version)

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Created by Everlite.