Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating user interfaces and alerts for applications running on software platforms using indicator files. A method includes obtaining, by a software platform system configured to host computing tasks in a cloud computing environment of the distributed computing system, a user-customizable indicator file that specifies a set of indicators and, for at least one of the indicators, one or more alert thresholds. Each indicator is a measurable parameter for a particular computing task hosted by the software platform system. A monitoring service uses the user-customizable indicator file to obtain one or more values for each of one or more of the indicators from the software platform system. The monitoring service uses the user-customizable indicator file to generate a graphical user interface that includes, for each indicator, data specifying the one or more values for the indicator.