Console.text() – SMS alerts when code executes

  Hey HN! I built console.text() - a tool that texts you when specific code paths execute in production.

  The idea came from Jason Goodison's YouTube video about micro-SaaS products. I'd been stuck in tutorial hell for months, so I decided to just ship something.

  What it does:

    npm install @holler2660/console-text

    const { init } =  require("@holler2660/console-text");
    init({ apiKey: 'ct_live_xxx' });

    console.text('Payment failed', { userId: '123' });
    // → SMS arrives in 5-10 seconds

  Try it: https://soorajdmg.github.io/Console-text/

  Why this vs Sentry/PagerDuty?

  Those are great for teams. This is for solo devs and side projects who want dead-simple alerts without the setup overhead. If you know console.log(), you already know how to use it.

6 points | by Noel04 4 days ago

6 comments

  • vunderba 2 days ago
    This is a pretty crowded space (Vonage, Clicksend, TopMessage, etc). They all provide very simple SMS sending libraries for JavaScript.

    The biggest problem you’re going to have going forward is establishing trust over existing platforms.

    [-]
    • Noel04 1 day ago
      You’re absolutely right, SMS itself is commoditized, and there are many solid providers. Console.text() isn’t trying to compete as “yet another SMS API”. The focus is on developer ergonomics and intent, not transport: one-line, code-level alerts (console.text("error")) built for early-stage teams that don’t want to wire PagerDuty / Datadog yet
  • Jeremy1026 2 days ago
    It seems like my carrier is blocking the messages. The console says it was delivered, but my phone isn't getting anything.
    [-]
    • Noel04 1 day ago
      “Delivered” at the API level means the message was accepted by the downstream carrier / aggregator, not that it necessarily reached the handset. In some regions and carriers, especially for A2P traffic, messages can be filtered or silently dropped after that point. we’re actively working on: clearer delivery state distinctions (accepted vs handset-delivered) fallback routing where possible better guidance on sender IDs and content patterns that reduce filtering

      If you’re open to it, sharing the country, carrier, and message type (transactional vs promo) helps us dig deeper.

      [-]
      • Jeremy1026 16 hours ago
        USA, T-Mobile, message was "Error Detected"
  • Gooblebrai 4 days ago
    > Jason Goodison's YouTube video about micro-SaaS products

    Can you link the video?

    [-]
  • davydm 4 days ago
    interesting

    btw - can't connect to any consoletext.dev domain - dashboard, docs, etc

    [-]
  • nicbou 3 days ago
    Why not use ntfy.sh?
    [-]
    • Noel04 3 days ago 

        ntfy.sh is great! But it requires:
  - Setting up a topic/channel
  - Installing their app on your phone
  - Subscribing to topics
  - Running a curl command or HTTP client

  console.text() is:
    npm install @holler2660/console-text
    console.text('thing happened');
      That said, ntfy.sh doesn't do SMS, so if you genuinely need to wake up at 3am for critical alerts, it's push notifications vs actual phone calls/texts. The main thing I'm going for is ease of use
  • pestatije 4 days ago
    is this cloud-friendly? or just us-based?
    [-]
    • Noel04 4 days ago
      It's global! The SDK works anywhere, and you can receive SMS to any phone number worldwide.