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What it checks

Monitors

A monitor is one thing checked on a schedule. There are eleven types; all of them share the same settings, states and confirmation rule.

The types

TypeTargetWhat it checks
Website or API
http
A URLSends a request (any method, headers, body, sign-in) and checks the answer. With no rules of your own it passes on any 2xx or 3xx status.
TCP port
tcp
host:portConnects to the port, with TLS if you ask. Can send a few bytes and check the banner that comes back.
Ping
ping
A host or IPFive pings: packets lost, average round trip, jitter. Fails when every packet is lost, or above the loss you set.
DNS
dns
A domainLooks up the record types you list (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, CAA) and tells you when the answer changes. With mail: true it also checks SPF and DMARC are there.
Certificate
cert
A hostReads the certificate: expiry, issuer, chain, hostname match, TLS version. Alerts at 30, 14, 7 and 1 days left.
Domain
domain
A domainReads the expiry date, registrar and nameservers from the public registry (RDAP). Alerts at 30, 14, 7 and 1 days left.
MCP server
mcp
A URLThe handshake, the sign-in flow, the tool, resource and prompt lists, changes to tools, and an optional safe test call.
AI gateway
gateway
A base URLThe models list, then a tiny streamed reply from each model you pick: time to first token, tokens per second, which model answered.
Agent test
agent
A chat endpointSends your test questions and checks each answer with rules and an AI judge.
Heartbeat
heartbeat
NoneThe other way round: your job calls us. You hear when it is late, fails or runs too long.
Service
service
A status page URLReads a vendor’s Statuspage-compatible feed, so their incidents show beside yours.

More on three of them: MCP monitors, agent tests and heartbeats.

What every monitor shares

  • How often. From every 3 minutes on Free and every 30 seconds on paid plans, down to once a day.
  • Regions. Where it is checked from. Leave it empty to use your organisation’s default regions.
  • Timeout. 15 seconds unless you change it. A timeout is a failure with a clear reason, never a hang.
  • Severity. critical and normal open an incident and alert; low goes into a daily digest.
  • Rules (assertions), tags, a service to group it under, and an alert rule.

Rules for websites and APIs

RulePasses when
statusThe status code is the one, or one of the ones, you expect
latencyThe whole request took less than the time you set
headerA response header has the value you expect
body_contains, body_not_containsThe words are, or are not, in the response
body_regexThe response matches a pattern
json_pathA field such as $.status exists, equals or contains a value
json_schemaThe JSON fits a schema (types, required fields, enums)
sizeThe response is no bigger than the size you set
cert_daysThe certificate has at least this many days left

When a rule fails, the result says so in words: “Expected status 200, got 503”.

States

  • Up. The last check passed.
  • Degraded. It passed, but too slowly, or an agent’s pass rate fell below its target, or an MCP tool changed. The default slow line is three times the 7-day median, and at least 1 second, for 3 runs in a row.
  • Down. A check failed and other regions confirmed it.
  • Paused and Maintenance. Not being checked, on purpose.

How a failure is confirmed

Each run goes out from one region, taking turns. When a run fails, two other regions retry at once. Down needs two of the three to fail. Up again needs two passes in a row. A monitor that flips more than 4 times in an hour is marked flapping, and its alerts fold into one.

What each run keeps

Timings (DNS, connect, TLS, first byte, total), each rule’s result, the status code, the region, and the first 2 KB of the response with personal data removed. Samples are kept for 7 days; the numbers for 13 months.

Secrets

A monitor never holds a key in plain text. Save the value once as a secret, then refer to it as secret.NAME anywhere a token or password goes. Values are write-only: nobody can read one back.

Private addresses

Our probes only reach the public internet. A target on a private or reserved address is refused with a clear message. Private probes that run inside your network are planned.