Monitoring cron jobs

Create a monitor with the same schedule as your crontab entry, then append a success ping after the command.

Import a crontab

On the dashboard, paste a full crontab into Import crontab. One monitor is created per job. Comments and VAR=value lines are skipped. Each created job shows a suggested command && curl … line to copy back into crontab. Imports stop when your plan has no free slots.

From Cursor or Claude, create an MCP key and call import_crontab. See API & MCP.

1. Create one monitor

  1. Open the dashboard
  2. Add a monitor with the cron expression your job already uses
  3. Set grace to cover normal overrun (often 60-300 seconds)
  4. Copy the ping URL

2. Ping after success

Only ping when the job exits successfully. With &&, a failing command skips the ping and the monitor will go late/down on schedule.

# m h dom mon dow
15 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh && curl -fsS -m 10 https://diditcron.com/p/<token> >/dev/null

3. Optional start + fail

15 2 * * * \
  curl -fsS -m 10 https://diditcron.com/p/<token>/start >/dev/null; \
  /usr/local/bin/backup.sh \
    && curl -fsS -m 10 https://diditcron.com/p/<token> >/dev/null \
    || curl -fsS -m 10 -X POST --data "backup failed" https://diditcron.com/p/<token>/fail >/dev/null

Tips

  • Use curl -fsS -m 10 so a hung ping does not block the job forever
  • Match the monitor schedule to crontab; mismatched schedules cause false downs
  • Pause the monitor in the dashboard during planned maintenance

Monitoring cron jobs · DidItCron