Guides · Cron jobs · scheduled scripts
Get alerted if a cron job didn't run
A cron that never starts cannot email you. Gonewatch expects a heartbeat after each successful run. If the next window is missed, you get a Down alert — email on every plan, Slack, Discord, or Telegram on Basic and Pro.
How it works
1
Create a monitor
Fixed time of day (for example daily at 2:00 AM) or a rolling interval, plus a grace window.
2
Ping after success
Add one curl to the end of the crontab line so a failed job does not count as a heartbeat.
3
Get the Down alert
If the heartbeat never arrives, Gonewatch marks the monitor Down and notifies you. A later ping sends recovery.
Add it to crontab
Only ping when the script exits successfully. Then create a Gonewatch monitor for that same local time so a skipped night is visible.
# Nightly job at 2:00 AM — ping Gonewatch only if it succeeded
0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh && curl -fsS -X POST https://www.gonewatch.com/api/heartbeat/YOUR_TOKENReplace YOUR_TOKEN with the URL from the monitor page after you sign up. Treat it like a secret.
Silence is the failure
What this catches
Crontab removed in a deploy, the server down at 2 AM, a lock file that never cleared, or a job that exited before the ping.
What this is not
Not uptime pinging of a public URL. Gonewatch watches expected events you schedule — the job tells us it ran.
Cron monitoring questions
The usual objections before pasting a curl.
Why not just email myself from the cron?
A job that never starts cannot send that email. Heartbeat monitoring expects a ping on a schedule. Silence is the signal — including a machine that was off, a crontab that was commented out, or a deploy that dropped the line.
What if the job runs late?
Add a grace period after the expected time. If the heartbeat arrives inside that window, the monitor stays healthy. Tune grace to how late the job can be without being a problem.
Do I need an agent on the server?
No. After the script succeeds, POST to your monitor URL — curl is enough. Same idea in Node or Python if you prefer.
Is this free?
Yes for a handful of monitors with email alerts. Slack, Discord, and Telegram alerts are on Basic and Pro.
More guides
Watch one cron this week
Free plan, no credit card. Email alerts on down and recovery.
Create a monitor