canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/cronalive.com/cronalive

# CronAlive API

The CronAlive API monitors scheduled jobs and services with heartbeat checks that expect a ping on a cadence and raise an alert when one is missed. It creates and configures checks, reads their recent pings and status flips, pauses and resumes monitoring, and manages the notification integrations that deliver alerts. Read-only and read-write project keys scope what a caller can do, and a fallback list of ping domains is published for SDKs.

## For AI agents

Create and configure heartbeat checks, read their recent pings and status flips, pause or resume monitoring, and manage alert integrations. Authenticated with a bearer project key across 14 operations.

## Scope

Does not handle log aggregation, metric dashboards, or application performance tracing. Use for heartbeat and uptime monitoring of scheduled jobs and services only.

## Capabilities

- Create and configure heartbeat checks for scheduled jobs and services
- Read a check's recent pings and its status flips over time
- Pause and resume monitoring on a check
- Manage the notification integrations that deliver alerts
- Fetch the current fallback list of ping domains for SDKs

## Use cases

### Cron Job Heartbeat Monitoring

An agent sets up dead-man's-switch monitoring for a scheduled job. It creates a check that expects a ping on a cadence, and CronAlive raises an alert through the configured integrations when an expected ping does not arrive, so a silently failed cron job is caught rather than missed.

Example prompt: Call POST /checks to create a heartbeat check with a cadence, then GET `/checks/{uuid}/pings` to confirm pings are arriving

### Incident Triage from Status Flips

When an on-call agent investigates an alert, it reads a check's recent status flips and pings to see when the service went down and whether it has recovered. Pausing monitoring during planned maintenance keeps the flip history clean of expected outages.

Example prompt: Call GET `/checks/{uuid}/flips` to read status changes, then POST `/checks/{uuid}/pause` during maintenance

### AI Agent Integration via Jentic

An AI agent reaches the CronAlive API through Jentic without wiring the bearer project key itself. It searches by intent, receives the matching operation and its input schema, and executes with the credential injected at run time, creating checks and reading their health as part of a larger operations workflow.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'create a heartbeat check', load the POST /checks schema, and execute it with Jentic-managed credentials

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/checks` | List checks of the key's project |
| POST | `/checks` | Create a check |
| GET | `/checks/{uuid}` | Get a check |
| PATCH | `/checks/{uuid}` | Update a check |
| POST | `/checks/{uuid}/pause` | Pause monitoring |
| GET | `/checks/{uuid}/pings` | Recent pings for a check |
| GET | `/checks/{uuid}/flips` | Recent status changes |
| GET | `/integrations` | List integrations |

## Key resources

- **Checks** — Create, read, update, pause, and resume heartbeat checks under /checks
- **Pings and Flips** — Read recent pings and status flips for a check
- **Integrations** — Manage the notification integrations that deliver alerts

## AI readiness

This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.

- **Score:** 44 / 100
- **Maturity:** Foundational
- **Dimensions:**
  - Foundational Compliance: 87 / 100
  - Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility: 63 / 100
  - AI-Readiness & Agent Experience: 20 / 100
  - Agent Usability: 94 / 100
  - Security: 60 / 100
  - AI Discoverability: 64 / 100
- **View full report:** https://jentic.com/apis/cronalive.com/cronalive/scorecard
- **How the score is calculated:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/overview/
- **More about the dimensions:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/specification/#dimensional-model-overview

### Score it yourself

Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.

- **Score your own API:** https://jentic.com/scorecard.md
- **Scoring CLI agent skill:** https://github.com/jentic/jentic-api-scorecard/blob/main/skills/jentic-api-scorecard/SKILL.md

```sh
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>
```

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring CronAlive by hand means sending its bearer project key, choosing between read-only and read-write keys, and honoring the Retry-After header on rate limits yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import CronAlive from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** CronAlive puts the check id in the URL path (`/checks/{uuid}`), so a rule can pin your agent to one check and the operations you pick. You choose that set, so destructive actions like deleting a check or an integration are not included unless you add them.
- **Credential handling:** Your CronAlive key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'create a heartbeat check' or 'read a monitor's status flips', and Jentic returns the matching CronAlive operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Cronitor** — Cron job and uptime monitoring with alerting
- **UptimeRobot** — Website and endpoint uptime monitoring
- **Better Stack** — Uptime, logs, and incident monitoring platform
- **Statuspage** — Public status pages for communicating incidents

## FAQ

### What authentication does the CronAlive API use?

The CronAlive API authenticates with a bearer project key in the Authorization header per its OpenAPI spec, using ca_rw_ read-write or ca_ro_ read-only keys, where read-only keys may call only GET endpoints. The ping-domains endpoint is public. Through Jentic the key is stored encrypted by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time.

### What are the rate limits for the CronAlive API?

The OpenAPI spec states a limit of 600 requests per minute per key, returning a 429 with a Retry-After header on excess. An agent can honor the Retry-After value to back off rather than retrying blindly.

### Can I read a check's status history with the CronAlive API?

Yes. The pings endpoint returns a check's recent pings and the flips endpoint returns its status changes over time, so an agent can see when a service went down and whether it recovered. Both return structured JSON an agent can act on directly.

### How do I create a heartbeat check through Jentic with the CronAlive API?

Search Jentic for 'create a heartbeat check', and it returns the CronAlive check-creation operation with its input schema. Load the schema and execute POST /checks with the credential injected at run time. To run it on your own infrastructure, install Jentic One from its GitHub repo.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the CronAlive API?

Yes. CronAlive puts the check id in the URL path, so a rule can pin your agent to one check and the read operations you pick, such as its pings and flips. Deleting a check or changing an integration stays out of reach unless you grant it, and every call runs through your own instance where it is logged.