A simple dead-man switch for your scheduled work.
CronHealth does not run your jobs. Your jobs stay in your own infrastructure. CronHealth waits for expected success pings and alerts you when they stop arriving.
Create a monitor
Give your automation a name, choose when it should run, and define a grace period before it counts as late.
Add the ping URL
CronHealth gives you a unique URL. Call it only after your job finishes successfully.
Get alerted if it stops
If the expected ping does not arrive after the grace period, CronHealth marks it late and sends an email alert.
The workflow
From monitor creation to email alert.
The MVP is intentionally focused: pings, status, recent history, and email alerts.
1. Configure the monitor
A monitor describes one automation you expect to run repeatedly.
2. Copy the generated ping URL
Each monitor gets a secure, unguessable URL. This URL is safe to place inside your cron job, script, or scheduled worker.
3. Ping only after success
Place the ping at the end of the command chain, after your real work succeeds. This makes the ping mean: “the job completed.”
4. CronHealth watches the deadline
If the next expected ping does not arrive after the grace period, the monitor becomes Late. CronHealth sends one missed-ping email, not repeated noisy emails every minute.
5. Recovery is detected automatically
When a late monitor receives a new ping, it becomes Healthy again and CronHealth sends a recovery email.
Example: daily backup monitor
Run your backup at 03:00 every day. If the backup succeeds, send a ping. If CronHealth does not receive that ping on time, you get an email alert.
# Run backup every day at 03:00. # Ping CronHealth only if backup.sh exits successfully. 0 3 * * * /app/bin/backup.sh \ && curl -fsS -m 10 --retry 3 \ https://cronhealth.io/ping/your-monitor-token
Monitor statuses
Simple status states you can understand quickly.
The monitor was created but has not received its first ping yet.
The latest ping arrived and the next deadline has not been missed.
The expected ping did not arrive after the configured grace period.
The monitor is disabled temporarily and will not trigger late alerts.
FAQ
Common setup questions.
Should I ping before or after the job?
Usually after the job succeeds. That way the ping means the job completed, not just that it started.
What if my job sometimes runs late?
Use a grace period. For example, a daily backup expected at 03:00 can have a 30-minute grace period before it becomes late.
Will I get spammed with emails?
No. The MVP sends one email when a monitor transitions to late and one recovery email when it becomes healthy again.
Does CronHealth verify business outcomes?
Not in the first MVP. The first version focuses on ping-based monitoring. Outcome checks may come later based on user feedback.
Create your first monitor in minutes.
Add one ping URL to an important job and see whether it keeps checking in.
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