Watchtower · mobile incident response

Know what broke. Fix it with evidence.

rootmote watches the servers you already run, brings incident evidence to your phone, and helps you approve a bounded fix before verifying recovery.

Start with a Linux server
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rockclaver/rootmote-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | sudo bash
watchtowerinvestigating

Example incident · illustrative data

Checkout API latency

api-01 · started 4 min ago

Health check · failing
Recent deploy · 8 min ago
Logs collected · 42 lines

proposed action

Restart checkout-api after reviewing the evidence.

awaiting your approval

Evidence first

See why an incident fired before deciding what to do.

Bounded changes

Review the exact action and target before approval.

Recovery checked

Close the loop with a recorded recovery result.

The incident loop

From first signal to verified recovery

Watchtower keeps the response focused: collect enough evidence to understand the problem, make one deliberate change, and check that the service is healthy again.

01

Detect

Watchtower watches the signals that matter and sends an alert when a server needs attention.

02

Understand

Open the incident on your phone and see the timeline, affected service, recent changes, and collected evidence.

03

Review

Turn the diagnosis into a bounded fix. The exact command, target, and risk are visible before anything runs.

04

Recover

Approve from the app, then watch the same checks recover and close the incident with an auditable record.

What stays in focus

A calm control plane for server incidents

Use rootmote when a production service needs a human decision, with the context to make that decision well.

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Incident evidence

A useful incident starts with context: health signals, service output, recent events, and the checks that led to the diagnosis.

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Reviewed fixes

Watchtower proposes a small, explicit action with a defined target. You decide whether it should run.

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Verified recovery

Recovery is a state to prove. Re-run the relevant checks and keep the result with the incident record.

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Actionable alerts

Get a push when attention is needed, then go straight from the alert to the evidence on your phone.

Install

Your server stays yours

Install rootmote-agent on the host, connect over SSH, and keep the control plane close to the infrastructure it monitors.

Linux VPS
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rockclaver/rootmote-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | sudo bash

Connection model

The agent is a single Go binary bound to loopback. The app opens an SSH tunnel using your own key. For remote access, use a private network such as Tailscale and never expose port 7676 publicly.

Read the full install guide →

FAQ

Questions

A focused incident workflow, with the limits and mechanisms stated plainly.

What is Watchtower?+

Watchtower is rootmote's mobile workflow for server incidents: detect a problem, gather evidence, review a bounded fix, and verify recovery.

How does it connect to my server?+

The app uses your SSH key to open a tunnel to rootmote-agent. The agent binds to 127.0.0.1, so it does not add a public service.

Can it change a server without me?+

Read-only monitoring and evidence collection can run automatically. A reviewed fix waits for your approval in the app, and the agent records the confirmation.

What does biometric approval protect?+

Device authentication confirms your approval before the app sends a fix to the agent. Software running under the agent's own server account can still access its credentials; the security page explains the current limits.

Where does my data live?+

Raw evidence is fetched from the agent to your phone over the SSH and loopback path. The relay receives only redacted diagnosis summaries and redacted lifecycle events for sync and notifications. If you enable AI diagnosis, the selected AI provider receives the diagnostic context needed for that assessment; your SSH keys and raw evidence are not sent to the relay.

What does it cost?+

Core local access is free. Watchtower currently includes a trial; billing details are not published here while the service is being validated.

Start with the server you have

When the alert arrives, bring the evidence with you.

Core local access is free · Watchtower trial available