Health: only what is genuinely checked gets drawn

There is a screen that says whether each part of the system is working. And it has one rule that is the whole difference between being useful and being decoration: only what is genuinely checked gets drawn.

The first version did not follow its own rule. It checked that a configuration field was filled in — there is a key, there is a URL — and drew green. That does not say the thing works: it says somebody typed something into a form. It was corrected the same day, and now the check calls the service and looks at what comes back.

It is the same criterion we apply to what we publish: an indicator that looks firm when it is not is not incomplete data, it is false data. And on a health screen that is worse than not having one, because it takes away any urge to look twice.