Management API

With the Management API, you can programmatically manage checks and integrations in your account.

API Endpoints

Endpoint Name Endpoint Address
Get a list of existing checks GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/
Get a single check GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>
GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<unique_key>
Create a new check POST https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/
Update an existing check POST https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>
Pause monitoring of a check POST https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>/pause
Delete check DELETE https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>
Get a list of check's logged pings GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>/pings/
Get a list of check's status changes GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>/flips/
GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<unique_key>/flips/
Get a list of existing integrations GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/channels/

Authentication

Your requests to Healthchecks Management API must authenticate using an API key. All API keys are project-specific. There are no account-wide API keys. By default, a project on Healthchecks doesn't have an API key. You can create read-write and read-only API keys on the Project Settings page.

read-write key
Has full access to all documented API endpoints.
read-only key

Only works with the following API endpoints:

Omits sensitive information from the API responses. See the documentation of individual API endpoints for details.

The client can authenticate itself by including an X-Api-Key: <your-api-key> header in an HTTP request. Alternatively, for POST requests with a JSON request body, the client can put an api_key field in the JSON document. See the Create a new check section for an example.

API Requests

For POST requests, the Healthchecks API expects the request body to be a JSON document (not a multipart/form-data encoded form data).

API Responses

Healthchecks uses HTTP status codes wherever possible. In general, 2xx class indicates success, 4xx indicates a client error, and 5xx indicates a server error.

The response may contain a JSON document with additional data.

Get a List of Existing Checks

GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/

Returns a list of checks belonging to the user, optionally filtered by one or more tags.

Query String Parameters

tag=<value>

Filters the checks and returns only the checks that are tagged with the specified value.

This parameter can be repeated multiple times.

Example:

https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/?tag=foo&tag=bar

Response Codes

200 OK
The request succeeded.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.

Example Request

curl --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/

Example Response

{
  "checks": [
    {
      "name": "Filesystem Backup",
      "tags": "backup fs",
      "desc": "Runs incremental backup every hour",
      "grace": 600,
      "n_pings": 1,
      "status": "up",
      "last_ping": "2020-03-24T14:02:03+00:00",
      "next_ping": "2020-03-24T15:02:03+00:00",
      "manual_resume": false,
      "methods": "",
      "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/31365bce-8da9-4729-8ff3-aaa71d56b712",
      "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/31365bce-8da9-4729-8ff3-aaa71d56b712",
      "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/31365bce-8da9-4729-8ff3-aaa71d56b712/pause",
      "channels": "1bdea468-03bf-47b8-ab27-29a9dd0e4b94,51c6eb2b-2ae1-456b-99fe-6f1e0a36cd3c",
      "timeout": 3600
    },
    {
      "name": "Database Backup",
      "tags": "production db",
      "desc": "Runs ~/db-backup.sh",
      "grace": 1200,
      "n_pings": 7,
      "status": "down",
      "last_ping": "2020-03-23T10:19:32+00:00",
      "next_ping": null,
      "manual_resume": false,
      "methods": "",
      "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/803f680d-e89b-492b-82ef-2be7b774a92d",
      "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/803f680d-e89b-492b-82ef-2be7b774a92d",
      "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/803f680d-e89b-492b-82ef-2be7b774a92d/pause",
      "channels": "1bdea468-03bf-47b8-ab27-29a9dd0e4b94,51c6eb2b-2ae1-456b-99fe-6f1e0a36cd3c",
      "schedule": "15 5 * * *",
      "tz": "UTC"
    }
  ]
}

When using the read-only API key, Healthchecks omits the following fields from responses: ping_url, update_url, pause_url, channels. It adds an extra unique_key field. The unique_key identifier is stable across API calls, and you can use it in the Get a single check and Get a list of check's status changes API calls.

Example:

{
  "checks": [
    {
      "name": "Filesystem Backup",
      "tags": "backup fs",
      "desc": "Runs incremental backup every hour",
      "grace": 600,
      "n_pings": 1,
      "status": "up",
      "last_ping": "2020-03-24T14:02:03+00:00",
      "next_ping": "2020-03-24T15:02:03+00:00",
      "manual_resume": false,
      "methods": "",
      "unique_key": "a6c7b0a8a66bed0df66abfdab3c77736861703ee",
      "timeout": 3600
    },
    {
      "name": "Database Backup",
      "tags": "production db",
      "desc": "Runs ~/db-backup.sh",
      "grace": 1200,
      "n_pings": 7,
      "status": "down",
      "last_ping": "2020-03-23T10:19:32+00:00",
      "next_ping": null,
      "manual_resume": false,
      "methods": "",
      "unique_key": "124f983e0e3dcaeba921cfcef46efd084576e783",
      "schedule": "15 5 * * *",
      "tz": "UTC"
    }
  ]
}

Get a Single Check

GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>
GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<unique_key>

Returns a JSON representation of a single check. Accepts either check's UUID or the unique_key (a field derived from UUID and returned by API responses when using the read-only API key) as an identifier.

Response Codes

200 OK
The request succeeded.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
Access denied, wrong API key.
404 Not Found
The specified check does not exist.

Example Request

curl --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>

Example Response

{
  "name": "Database Backup",
  "tags": "production db",
  "desc": "Runs ~/db-backup.sh",
  "grace": 1200,
  "n_pings": 7,
  "status": "down",
  "last_ping": "2020-03-23T10:19:32+00:00",
  "next_ping": null,
  "manual_resume": false,
  "methods": "",
  "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/803f680d-e89b-492b-82ef-2be7b774a92d",
  "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/803f680d-e89b-492b-82ef-2be7b774a92d",
  "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/803f680d-e89b-492b-82ef-2be7b774a92d/pause",
  "channels": "1bdea468-03bf-47b8-ab27-29a9dd0e4b94,51c6eb2b-2ae1-456b-99fe-6f1e0a36cd3c",
  "schedule": "15 5 * * *",
  "tz": "UTC"
}

Example Read-Only Response

When using the read-only API key, Healthchecks omits the following fields from responses: ping_url, update_url, pause_url, channels. It adds an extra unique_key field. This identifier is stable across API calls.

Note: although API omits the ping_url, update_url, and pause_url in read-only API responses, the client can easily construct these URLs themselves if they know the check's unique UUID.

{
  "name": "Database Backup",
  "tags": "production db",
  "desc": "Runs ~/db-backup.sh",
  "grace": 1200,
  "n_pings": 7,
  "status": "down",
  "last_ping": "2020-03-23T10:19:32+00:00",
  "next_ping": null,
  "manual_resume": false,
  "methods": "",
  "unique_key": "124f983e0e3dcaeba921cfcef46efd084576e783",
  "schedule": "15 5 * * *",
  "tz": "UTC"
}

Create a Check

POST https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/

Creates a new check and returns its ping URL. All request parameters are optional and will use their default values if omitted.

With this API call, you can create both Simple and Cron checks:

  • To create a Simple check, specify the timeout parameter.
  • To create a Cron check, specify the schedule and tz parameters.

Request Parameters

name

string, optional, default value: ""

Name for the new check.

tags

string, optional, default value: ""

A space-delimited list of tags for the new check. Example:

{"tags": "reports staging"}

desc

string, optional.

Description of the check.

timeout

number, optional, default value: 86400.

A number of seconds, the expected period of this check.

Minimum: 60 (one minute), maximum: 2592000 (30 days).

Example for a 5-minute timeout:

{"kind": "simple", "timeout": 300}

grace

number, optional, default value: 3600.

A number of seconds, the grace period for this check.

Minimum: 60 (one minute), maximum: 2592000 (30 days).

schedule

string, optional, default value: "* * * * *".

A cron expression defining this check's schedule.

If you specify both timeout and schedule parameters, Healthchecks will create a Cron check and ignore the timeout value.

Example for a check running every half-hour:

{"schedule": "0,30 *  * "}

tz

string, optional, default value: "UTC".

Server's timezone. This setting only has an effect in combination with the schedule parameter.

Example:

{"tz": "Europe/Riga"}

manual_resume

boolean, optional, default value: false.

Controls whether a paused check automatically resumes when pinged (the default) or not. If set to false, a paused check will leave the paused state when it receives a ping. If set to true, a paused check will ignore pings and stay paused until you manually resume it from the web dashboard.

methods

string, optional, default value: "".

Specifies the allowed HTTP methods for making ping requests. Must be one of the two values: "" (an empty string) or "POST".

Set this field to "" (an empty string) to allow HEAD, GET, and POST requests.

Set this field to "POST" to allow only POST requests.

Example:

{"methods": "POST"}

channels

string, optional

By default, this API call assigns no integrations to the newly created check.

Set this field to a special value "*" to automatically assign all existing integrations. Example:

{"channels": "*"}

To assign specific integrations, use a comma-separated list of integration UUIDs. You can look up integration UUIDs using the Get a List of Existing Integrations API call.

Example:

{"channels":
 "4ec5a071-2d08-4baa-898a-eb4eb3cd6941,746a083e-f542-4554-be1a-707ce16d3acc"}

Alternatively, if you have named your integrations in Healthchecks dashboard, you can specify integrations by their names. For this to work, your integrations need non-empty unique names, and they must not contain commas. The names must match exactly, whitespace is significant.

Example:

{"channels": "Email to Alice,SMS to Alice"}

unique

array of string values, optional, default value: [].

Enables "upsert" functionality. Before creating a check, Healthchecks looks for existing checks, filtered by fields listed in unique.

If Healthchecks does not find a matching check, it creates a new check and returns it with the HTTP status code 201.

If Healthchecks finds a matching check, it updates the existing check and returns it with HTTP status code 200.

The accepted values for the unique field are name, tags, timeout, and grace.

Example:

{"name": "Backups", unique: ["name"]}

In this example, if a check named "Backups" exists, it will be returned. Otherwise, a new check will be created and returned.

Response Codes

201 Created
A new check was successfully created.
200 OK
An existing check was found and updated.
400 Bad Request
The request is not well-formed, violates schema, or uses invalid field values.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
The account has hit its check limit. For free accounts, the limit is 20 checks per account.

Example Request

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/ \
    --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" \
    --data '{"name": "Backups", "tags": "prod www", "timeout": 3600, "grace": 60}'

Or, alternatively:

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/ \
    --data '{"api_key": "your-api-key", "name": "Backups", "tags": "prod www", "timeout": 3600, "grace": 60}'

Example Response

{
  "channels": "",
  "desc": "",
  "grace": 60,
  "last_ping": null,
  "n_pings": 0,
  "name": "Backups",
  "next_ping": null,
  "manual_resume": false,
  "methods": "",
  "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc/pause",
  "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
  "status": "new",
  "tags": "prod www",
  "timeout": 3600,
  "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
}

Update an Existing Check

POST https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>

Updates an existing check. All request parameters are optional. If you omit any parameter, Healthchecks will leave its value unchanged.

Request Parameters

name

string, optional.

Name for the check.

tags

string, optional.

A space-delimited list of tags for the check.

Example:

{"tags": "reports staging"}

desc

string, optional.

Description of the check.

timeout

number, optional.

A number of seconds, the expected period of this check.

Minimum: 60 (one minute), maximum: 2592000 (30 days).

Example for a 5-minute timeout:

{"kind": "simple", "timeout": 300}

grace

number, optional.

A number of seconds, the grace period for this check.

Minimum: 60 (one minute), maximum: 2592000 (30 days).

schedule

string, optional.

A cron expression defining this check's schedule.

If you specify both timeout and schedule parameters, Healthchecks will save the schedule parameter and ignore the timeout.

Example for a check running every half-hour:

{"schedule": "0,30 *  * "}

tz

string, optional.

Server's timezone. This setting only has an effect in combination with the "schedule" parameter.

Example:

{"tz": "Europe/Riga"}

manual_resume

boolean, optional, default value: false.

Controls whether a paused ping automatically resumes when pinged (the default), or not. If set to false, a paused check will leave the paused state when it receives a ping. If set to true, a paused check will ignore pings and stay paused until you manually resume it from the web dashboard.

methods

string, optional, default value: "".

Specifies the allowed HTTP methods for making ping requests. Must be one of the two values: "" (an empty string) or "POST".

Set this field to "" (an empty string) to allow HEAD, GET, and POST requests.

Set this field to "POST" to allow only POST requests.

Example:

{"methods": "POST"}

channels

string, optional.

Set this field to a special value "*" to automatically assign all existing integrations. Example:

{"channels": "*"}

Set this field to a special value "" (empty string) to automatically unassign all existing integrations. Example:

{"channels": ""}

To assign specific integrations, use a comma-separated list of integration UUIDs. You can look up integration UUIDs using the Get a List of Existing Integrations API call.

Example:

{"channels":
 "4ec5a071-2d08-4baa-898a-eb4eb3cd6941,746a083e-f542-4554-be1a-707ce16d3acc"}

Alternatively, if you have named your integrations in Healthchecks dashboard, you can specify integrations by their names. For this to work, your integrations need non-empty and unique names, and they must not contain commas. The names must match exactly, whitespace is significant.

Example:

{"channels": "Email to Alice,SMS to Alice"}

Response Codes

200 OK
The check was successfully updated.
400 Bad Request
The request is not well-formed, violates schema, or uses invalid field values.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
Access denied, wrong API key.
404 Not Found
The specified check does not exist.

Example Request

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc \
    --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" \
    --data '{"name": "Backups", "tags": "prod www", "timeout": 3600, "grace": 60}'

Or, alternatively:

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc \
    --data '{"api_key": "your-api-key", "name": "Backups", "tags": "prod www", "timeout": 3600, "grace": 60}'

Example Response

{
  "channels": "",
  "desc": "",
  "grace": 60,
  "last_ping": null,
  "n_pings": 0,
  "name": "Backups",
  "next_ping": null,
  "manual_resume": false,
  "methods": "",
  "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc/pause",
  "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
  "status": "new",
  "tags": "prod www",
  "timeout": 3600,
  "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
}

Pause Monitoring of a Check

POST https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>/pause

Disables monitoring for a check without removing it. The check goes into a "paused" state. You can resume monitoring of the check by pinging it.

This API call has no request parameters.

Response Codes

200 OK
The check was successfully paused.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
Access denied, wrong API key.
404 Not Found
The specified check does not exist.

Example Request

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/0c8983c9-9d73-446f-adb5-0641fdacc9d4/pause \
    --request POST --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" --data ""

Note: the --data "" argument forces curl to send a Content-Length request header even though the request body is empty. For HTTP POST requests, the Content-Length header is sometimes required by some network proxies and web servers.

Example Response

{
  "channels": "",
  "desc": "",
  "grace": 60,
  "last_ping": null,
  "n_pings": 0,
  "name": "Backups",
  "next_ping": null,
  "manual_resume": false,
  "methods": "",
  "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc/pause",
  "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
  "status": "paused",
  "tags": "prod www",
  "timeout": 3600,
  "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc"
}

Delete Check

DELETE https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>

Permanently deletes the check from the user's account. Returns JSON representation of the check that was just deleted.

This API call has no request parameters.

Response Codes

200 OK
The check was successfully deleted.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
Access denied, wrong API key.
404 Not Found
The specified check does not exist.

Example Request

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc \
    --request DELETE --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key"

Example Response

{
  "channels": "",
  "desc": "",
  "grace": 60,
  "last_ping": null,
  "n_pings": 0,
  "name": "Backups",
  "next_ping": null,
  "manual_resume": false,
  "methods": "",
  "pause_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc/pause",
  "ping_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/ping/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
  "status": "new",
  "tags": "prod www",
  "timeout": 3600,
  "update_url": "https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc",
}

Get a list of check's logged pings

GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>/pings/

Returns a list of pings this check has received.

This endpoint returns pings in reverse order (most recent first), and the total number of returned pings depends on the account's billing plan: 100 for free accounts, 1000 for paid accounts.

Response Codes

200 OK
The request succeeded.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
Access denied, wrong API key.
404 Not Found
The specified check does not exist.

Example Request

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc/pings/ \
    --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key"

Example Response

{
  "pings": [
    {
      "type": "success",
      "date": "2020-06-09T14:51:06.113073+00:00",
      "n": 4,
      "scheme": "http",
      "remote_addr": "192.0.2.0",
      "method": "GET",
      "ua": "curl/7.68.0",
      "duration": 2.896736
    },
    {
      "type": "start",
      "date": "2020-06-09T14:51:03.216337+00:00",
      "n": 3,
      "scheme": "http",
      "remote_addr": "192.0.2.0",
      "method": "GET",
      "ua": "curl/7.68.0"
    },
    {
      "type": "success",
      "date": "2020-06-09T14:50:59.633577+00:00",
      "n": 2,
      "scheme": "http",
      "remote_addr": "192.0.2.0",
      "method": "GET",
      "ua": "curl/7.68.0",
      "duration": 2.997976
    },
    {
      "type": "start",
      "date": "2020-06-09T14:50:56.635601+00:00",
      "n": 1,
      "scheme": "http",
      "remote_addr": "192.0.2.0",
      "method": "GET",
      "ua": "curl/7.68.0"
    }
  ]
}

Get a list of check's status changes

GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid>/flips/
GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<unique_key>/flips/

Returns a list of "flips" this check has experienced. A flip is a change of status (from "down" to "up," or from "up" to "down").

Query String Parameters

seconds=<value>

Returns the flips from the last value seconds

Example:

https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid|unique_key>/flips/?seconds=3600

start=<value>

Returns flips that are newer than the specified UNIX timestamp.

Example:

https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid|unique_key>/flips/?start=1592214380

end=<value>

Returns flips that are older than the specified UNIX timestamp.

Example:

https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/<uuid|unique_key>/flips/?end=1592217980

Response Codes

200 OK
The request succeeded.
400 Bad Request
Invalid query parameters.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.
403 Forbidden
Access denied, wrong API key.
404 Not Found
The specified check does not exist.

Example Request

curl https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/checks/f618072a-7bde-4eee-af63-71a77c5723bc/flips/ \
    --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key"

Example Response

[
    {
      "timestamp": "2020-03-23T10:18:23+00:00",
      "up": 1
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "2020-03-23T10:17:15+00:00",
      "up": 0
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "2020-03-23T10:16:18+00:00",
      "up": 1
    }
]

Get a List of Existing Integrations

GET https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/channels/

Returns a list of integrations belonging to the project.

Response Codes

200 OK
The request succeeded.
401 Unauthorized
The API key is either missing or invalid.

Example Request

curl --header "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" https://hc.stg.oceanx.org/api/v1/channels/

Example Response

{
  "channels": [
    {
      "id": "4ec5a071-2d08-4baa-898a-eb4eb3cd6941",
      "name": "My Work Email",
      "kind": "email"
    },
    {
      "id": "746a083e-f542-4554-be1a-707ce16d3acc",
      "name": "My Phone",
      "kind": "sms"
    }
  ]
}