Menu

Check-ins

AppSignal Check-ins provide visibility into the state of background processes such as cron jobs. Check-ins help answer questions like:

Is my background process up and running?
Are my cron jobs running as scheduled?

Once configured, AppSignal will track the execution of background processes and scheduled jobs, giving insights into individual runs and notifying you if a process doesn't notify us of completion.

You can configure two kinds of check-ins with AppSignal: cron check-ins and heartbeat check-ins. Use cron check-ins to track the execution of processes scheduled to run at a specific time, such as cron jobs. Use heartbeat check-ins to track the uptime of a process that should run continuously, such as a server application or a background job processor.

Getting started

First, create a check-in in AppSignal, setting the expected schedule for your cron job, or the expected interval between heartbeat check-in events. For example, you can have a check-in for a scheduled job that should run every hour for at most 20 minutes, or a background job processor that should report a heartbeat check-in event at most every 5 minutes.

Then, configure your scheduled job or background process to send check-in events to AppSignal. A cron job should send a check-in event at the start and end of each occurrence, while a background job should send a check-in event at regular intervals.

AppSignal will then track the check-in events it receives and compare them to the expected occurrences. When AppSignal expects a check-in event but doesn't receive one in time, it will notify you as configured in the check-in, helping you ensure that your application's vital processes are working as expected.