Telebugs – Self-Hosted Error Tracking in 5 Minutes

TL;DR

TL;DR: Telebugs is a lightweight, self-hosted alternative to Sentry that lets you track application errors, view stack traces, and get alerts — all deployable in under 5 minutes via Docker.

Source and Accuracy Notes

• Official site: telebugs.com
• GitHub repo: not publicly listed on the site; HN post is the primary reference
• HN discussion: Show HN: Simple self-hosted Sentry alternative with a 5-minute setup

What Is Telebugs?

Telebugs is an open-source error tracking platform designed as a self-hosted replacement for Sentry. It captures exceptions from your applications, groups similar errors, shows full stack traces, and sends notifications when new errors appear.

The key appeal is simplicity: one Docker command gets you a running instance with a web UI and an SDK integration for your app.

Setup Workflow

Step 1: Deploy via Docker

The fastest path is Docker Compose:

git clone https://github.com/telebugs/telebugs
cd telebugs
docker-compose up -d

Once running, access the dashboard at http://localhost:3000.

Step 2: Integrate the SDK

Telebugs provides SDKs for common languages. For Node.js:

npm install @telebugs/sdk

import { Telebugs } from '@telebugs/sdk';

const telebugs = new Telebugs({
  projectId: 'your-project-id',
  dsn: 'http://localhost:3000/ingest',
});

process.on('uncaughtException', (error) => {
  telebugs.captureException(error);
  process.exit(1);
});

Python support is also available:

from telebugs import Telebugs

client = Telebugs(project_id="your-project-id", dsn="http://localhost:3000/ingest")

try:
    1 / 0
except Exception:
    client.capture_exception()

Step 3: Configure Alerts

From the dashboard, set up email or webhook alerts per project. Errors are grouped automatically, so you see how many times each error occurred rather than individual occurrences.

Deeper Analysis

What Telebugs Gets Right

• Minimal config: No account creation, no cloud dependency. Everything runs on your own infrastructure.
• Stack trace grouping: Errors are bucketed by type and source file, making it easy to see which errors are affecting the most users.
• Lightweight: Designed to have a small resource footprint compared to a full Sentry deployment.

Where It Falls Short

• No Python SDK on PyPI yet — the Python integration requires manual import from the repo.
• Limited third-party integrations out of the box. Sentry has years of plugin ecosystem depth.
• No hosted option — if you want a managed version you do not have to run anything, Telebugs does not offer that yet.

Comparing to Sentry

| Feature | Telebugs | Sentry | |---|---|---| | Self-hosted | Yes | Yes | | Docker deploy | Yes | Yes | | Python SDK | Via repo | PyPI | | Issue grouping | Yes | Yes | | Source maps | Limited | Full | | Hosted option | No | Yes (paid) | | Open source | Yes | No |

Practical Evaluation Checklist

• [ ] Docker Compose starts without errors
• [ ] Dashboard loads at localhost:3000
• [ ] Node.js SDK captures uncaught exception
• [ ] Python SDK captures exception
• [ ] Email alert fires on new error
• [ ] Error groups correctly in dashboard
• [ ] Memory usage stays under 512MB idle

Security Notes

• Errors may contain sensitive data in stack traces. Review what your app sends before deploying in production.
• Telebugs stores error data in a local database (SQLite by default). Secure the instance behind your network boundary.
• No built-in role-based access control in the current version — treat the instance as a single-user internal tool.

FAQ

Q: Can I use Telebugs alongside Sentry? A: Yes. You can route errors to both systems simultaneously by calling both SDKs in your exception handler, though this adds latency to error reporting.

Q: Does it support source maps? A: Partially. Minified JavaScript can be uploaded, but the source map pipeline is not as polished as Sentry’s.

Q: How does it handle high-volume error reporting? A: The local SQLite backend works fine for low-to-medium traffic. For high volume, you would need to swap in a PostgreSQL backend — check the repo for current database options.

Q: Is there a way to try it without Docker? A: The HN post mentions a 5-minute setup; the primary path is Docker. Manual installation from source is possible but not documented for beginners.

Conclusion

Telebugs fills a real gap for teams that want error tracking without handing data to a third party. The Docker deploy is genuinely fast, and the core workflow (capture → group → alert) works as advertised. The trade-off is a thinner ecosystem compared to Sentry — fewer integrations, no hosted option, and Python support that is not yet on PyPI.

If self-hosted error tracking is a hard requirement, Telebugs is worth a weekend eval. Pair it with a uptime monitor and you have a lightweight production-grade observability stack without the Sentry price tag.