Monitor Settings Reference

Monitor Settings Reference

This article describes every field in the monitor create/edit form. Use it as a reference when configuring a monitor or troubleshooting unexpected behavior.

Basic Settings

Name

A label for the monitor. Appears in the dashboard, incident notifications, and check history. Use something descriptive enough to identify the monitor at a glance — for example, "Production API — /health" rather than "Monitor 1".

URL

The full URL PulseAPI will request. Must include the scheme (https:// or http://). Do not include query strings unless they're required by the endpoint.

Valid examples:

  • https://api.yourapp.com/health
  • https://yourapp.com
  • https://api.yourapp.com/v2/status?format=json

HTTP Method

The HTTP method used for each check. Choose the method the endpoint is designed to receive:

  • GET — appropriate for most read/health-check endpoints
  • POST — use when the endpoint requires a POST to respond
  • PUT, PATCH, DELETE — for monitoring write endpoints (use with caution — these can have side effects)
  • HEAD — lightweight check that only returns headers, not the body; useful when you only need to verify the endpoint is reachable

Project

The project this monitor belongs to. Used for organization only — it doesn't affect monitoring behavior.

Check Settings

Check Interval

How often PulseAPI checks the endpoint. Options depend on your plan:

  • 60s — Free / Starter
  • 15s, 30s, 60s — Professional
  • 5s, 10s, 15s, 30s, 60s — Team

See Check Intervals Explained for guidance on choosing an interval.

Timeout

How many seconds PulseAPI waits for a response before marking the check as failed. Default: 30 seconds.

Set this to a value that reflects what you consider an unacceptably slow response. If your endpoint must respond within 5 seconds to be considered healthy, set the timeout to 5.

Expected Status Code

The HTTP status code that PulseAPI treats as a successful check. Default: 200.

Change this if your endpoint returns a different success code:

  • 201 — Created (common for POST endpoints)
  • 204 — No Content
  • 301 or 302 — if you want to confirm a redirect is in place

If the endpoint returns anything other than the expected code, the check is recorded as a failure.

Security Settings

SSL Verification

When enabled (the default), PulseAPI validates the endpoint's SSL certificate. A check fails if the certificate:

  • Has expired
  • Has an invalid chain of trust
  • Doesn't match the hostname

Disable this only for internal endpoints with self-signed certificates. Never disable SSL verification for public-facing endpoints — if the cert is invalid, your users have a real problem.

See SSL Certificate Monitoring for more detail.

Advanced Settings

Request Headers

Custom HTTP headers to include in every check request. Common use cases:

  • Authorization: Bearer <token> — for authenticated endpoints
  • Content-Type: application/json — when sending a POST body
  • X-API-Key: <key> — for API key authentication

See Adding Request Headers to a Monitor.

Request Body

A request body to send with POST, PUT, or PATCH checks. Leave empty for GET requests.

See Adding a Request Body to a Monitor.

Authentication

Shortcut configuration for common authentication patterns (Basic auth, bearer token) without manually writing headers.

See Authentication Options for Monitors.

Related Articles

Still have questions? Contact support.

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