Set the window to the job's schedule plus some slack, so a run that starts a few minutes late doesn't page anyone. Only ping on success (for example, after a zero exit code). A run that crashes then looks the same as a run that never started, and both get caught.
How do I monitor a cron job?
Last updated 23 June 2026
Use a heartbeat monitor (sometimes called a dead man's switch). The job requests a unique URL each time it finishes. If no request arrives within the expected window, the monitor marks the job down and alerts you. This suits cron jobs, workers and backups, which have no public URL for an outside check to call.
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