Creating Your First Monitor

Choosing a monitor type

MonitorHound supports three monitor types. Choose based on what you need to check:

• HTTP — Check any URL for availability and content. Best for websites, APIs, and health check endpoints.
• DNS — Verify that DNS records resolve to expected values. Best for catching misconfigurations and unauthorized changes.
• SSL — Monitor certificate expiry and chain validity. Best for preventing certificate-related outages.

Creating an HTTP monitor

1. Click New Monitor and select HTTP
2. Enter the full URL including the protocol (e.g., https://api.example.com/health)
3. Configure the following options:

Basic settings

Setting	Description	Default
Method	HTTP method (GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE)	GET
Interval	How often to check (1 min, 2 min, or 5 min — plan dependent)	5 minutes
Expected status codes	Status codes that indicate success	200, 201, 202, 204, 301, 302, 304

Advanced settings

• Headers — Add custom request headers (e.g., Authorization: Bearer <token>)
• Request body — For POST/PUT requests, include a JSON body
• Response body assertions — JSONPath expressions to validate response content (supports operators: equals, not_equals, contains, exists, gt, gte, lt, lte)

Assigning alert channels

After configuring the check settings, assign one or more alert channels. When the monitor detects a failure:

1. All selected locations check simultaneously
2. The evaluator aggregates results and determines the monitor state
3. Alerts are sent to all assigned channels
4. When the service recovers, a recovery notification is sent

Testing your monitor

After creation, use the Test Alert button on the monitor detail page to send a test notification through all linked channels. This verifies your alert channels are configured correctly.

If the check fails unexpectedly, review:

• Is the URL correct and accessible from the internet?
• Does the endpoint require authentication headers?
• Are the expected status codes correct for this endpoint?