# Degraded States In Multistep Checks - Checkly Docs

> Signal non-critical slowdowns in multistep checks with the degraded state, using soft assertions and the @checkly/playwright-helpers markCheckAsDegraded helper.

Source: https://www.checklyhq.com/docs/detect/synthetic-monitoring/multistep-checks/degraded-states/

---

- Installing and Importing
- Getting The Request Response Time
- Marking A Check As Degraded
- Example of Marking A Check As Degraded

Multistep Checks

# Degraded States In Multistep Checks

Signal non-critical slowdowns in multistep checks with the degraded state, using soft assertions and the @checkly/playwright-helpers markCheckAsDegraded helper.

If you want to monitor your service for non-critical errors or performance degradations you can use the degraded check state. This allows you to signal that parts of a Browser check performed slower than expected, or that it triggered assertions that are of lower criticality.
The degraded state does not affect your check’s success ratio like a failed state does. You can [configure alert channels](https://www.checklyhq.com/docs/communicate/alerts/channels#managing-alert-channels) to notify you when a check has degraded.
To catch errors that are relevant for a degraded scenario you can use soft assertions. Soft assertions keeps your Playwright test running after it has encountered an error, unlike regular assertions which terminate the test. See the [playwright docs](https://playwright.dev/docs/test-assertions#soft-assertions) for more information on soft assertions.

To trigger a degraded state, checks use a helper library, `@checkly/playwright-helpers`, which is included in runtimes `2023.09` and later.
The helper library contains two methods, `markCheckAsDegraded` and `getAPIResponseTime`.

### ​ Installing and Importing

```
npm i @checkly/playwright-helpers
```

```
import { getAPIResponseTime, markCheckAsDegraded } from '@checkly/playwright-helpers'
```

```
const { getAPIResponseTime, markCheckAsDegraded } = require('@checkly/playwright-helpers')
```

### ​ Getting The Request Response Time

To get the request response time, call `getAPIResponseTime`.
**Usage**

```
if (getAPIResponseTime(response) > 100) {
markCheckAsDegraded('Response was too slow.')
}
```

### ​ Marking A Check As Degraded

To mark a check as degraded, call `markCheckAsDegraded`.
This can be used when:

- The check is failing with soft assertions, or

- The check has no failures

If your check is failing due to a timeout or failed non-soft assertion it will be considered failing, even if `markCheckAsDegraded` is called.

**Usage**

```
if (foo.length > 100) {
markCheckAsDegraded('Foo is too long.')
}
```

**Arguments**

- `reason` String _(optional)_. Logged when the method is called. Used to identify which method caused the degradation.

**Arguments**

- `response` [APIResponse](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-apiresponse) _(required)_. A response from a Playwright API request.

### ​ Example of Marking A Check As Degraded

A check is marked as degraded when `markCheckAsDegraded` is called and there are no regular assertions triggered.
In this example we do a simple site navigation and measure the time the test takes. At the end of the check we mark the check as degraded if the duration of the test is too long, or if the site header has changed.
degraded.spec.ts

```
import { expect, test, Page } from '@playwright/test';
import { markCheckAsDegraded } from "@checkly/playwright-helpers"; // Import the necessary method from the Checkly helpers library.

test.setTimeout(30000);

const TEST_DEGRADATION_LIMIT = 400; // The limit for how long the test can run before it is considered degraded.

test("Visit Checkly and go to the docs", async ({ page }) => {
const startTime = Date.now(); // Note the time when the test starts

const response = await page.goto('https://www.checklyhq.com/welcome/');
expect(response.status(), 'should respond with correct status code').toBeLessThan(400) // Ensure that the welcome page loaded successfully
await page.getByRole('link', { name: '/docs' }).click(); // Navigate to the documentation page

const header = await page.getByText('Get Started');
expect.soft(header).toBeTruthy(); // A soft assert example

const endTime = Date.now(); // Note the time when the test completes
const duration = endTime - startTime; // Calculate the test duration

if (duration > TEST_DEGRADATION_LIMIT || test.info().errors.length) { // Trigger the degradation if the duration is longer than our set limit, or if the soft assert is triggered.
markCheckAsDegraded(`Test duration took longer than ${TEST_DEGRADATION_LIMIT}`);
}
})
```

Triggering a soft assertion in a check but not calling `markCheckAsDegraded` will fail the check at the end instead of marking as degraded.

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