Ideas Portal Guide
We always welcome ideas on how we can improve Checkmk from your perspective. This is why we created the Ideas Portal – a place where you can suggest a feature that could make Checkmk, and your monitoring, better.
What can I submit to the Ideas Portal?
The Ideas Portal is where you can submit ideas for new features or improvements to existing ones. It is not the place for bug reports – please raise those in support tickets (if you have a support contract) or share them in the Forum. Here are some general guidelines for submitting ideas:
- Each idea should cover only one feature or improvement.
- The scope should be realistic and precise – well-defined improvements are more likely to be accepted and implemented.
- Consider the impact of lacking this feature – explain how it affects you or your project.
- Use clear and respectful language.
- Avoid sharing sensitive data, such as:
- Internal IP addresses/URLs
- Passwords, API keys, and tokens
- Private SSH keysDatabase connection strings, including hostnames, ports, and credentials
Each submission includes a title and a description. You can also add an image to clarify the element you want to improve. To help us review your idea efficiently, please follow these guidelines.
Title
- Keep it concise but descriptive – imagine a random system administrator seeing it for the first time. Will they understand it?
- Include all relevant keywords so others can find your idea easily and avoid duplicates.
Bad Example: Improve Checkmk certificate monitoring
Good Example: Check certificates: Add option to disable chain verification
Description
Your idea’s description should include:
- The problem that should be solved
- Necessary context for a non technical person to easily understand the problem
- A description of a possible solution or how you would use the feature
- The impact of the problem and whom it affects
- Possible workarounds, if any exist
- What part of Checkmk is impacted (e.g., UI, rulesets, integrations, etc.)
- Links to external documentation, if relevant
- Links to existing discussions (e.g., Checkmk Forum)
Bad Example: "The certificate check does not work for me, and I cannot monitor my certificates properly. Please improve it."
Good Example: “We want to monitor the validity of certain certificates, but the check returns: “Certificate chain verification failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (WARN).These are rotating self-signed certificates, and we cannot import them. We only need to monitor their validity and do not require verification. Currently, the option to “allow self-signed certificates” does not resolve our issue. Please extend this option to also ignore other verification errors. I checked the forum and found some related posts.
What can I vote for in the Ideas Portal?
You can vote for any feature you like, but we encourage you to prioritize those that would directly benefit your project. The more votes an idea gets, the higher its chances of being considered. We dedicate resources to features that users genuinely need.
How to access the Ideas Portal?
To vote, comment, or propose a suggestion, you do not need to register—just provide your name and email for moderation purposes. We may get in contact with you while conducting research on your idea or on a topic related to the problem your idea solves.
How is my idea reviewed?
To keep the platform manageable, we will regularly:
- Tag ideas to make them easier to find
- Close ideas that are missing essential information and are tagged as 'Clarification required' if we do not hear back from the idea requester within 3 weeks regarding our questions
- Update ideas that have been implemented
A few tips:
- Describe the problem, not just a solution – this helps others understand and relate to your idea and helps us design features in the most useful way for you.
- Make your idea easy to understand – clearer ideas attract more votes.
- Be specific – knowing exactly what to expect helps everyone.
- Remember: All submissions must be in English, publicly visible, and manually approved. This usually takes up to 1 week and in some cases can take longer.
How does my idea impact the roadmap process?
Our roadmap is shaped by market research, strategic vision, and user feedback. The Ideas Portal provides valuable insight into features users want. While no single source determines our decisions, user input plays an important role in shaping our priorities.
When planning future initiatives, we review the Ideas Portal to see which suggestions align with our roadmap. This helps us integrate community ideas while considering other strategic factors.
Whom to contact
If you have any difficulties or questions regarding the Ideas Portal, please contact us at ideas@checkmk.com.