Get from zero to first monitor in under 3 minutes

Get an API key

Authorization: Bearer umk_live_...

Go to app.uptimemonitoring.com
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Create an API key and label it (e.g. ci-prod, local-dev, mcp)

Create your first monitor

curl -X POST https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/api/v1/monitors \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIMEMONITORING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"myapp","url":"https://myapp.com/healthz","type":"http"}'

The hostname must resolve at creation time — typos and unreachable targets fail immediately. The response wraps the monitor record and its first state snapshot:

{
  "monitor": {
    "id": 1287,
    "name": "myapp",
    "url": "https://myapp.com/healthz",
    "type": "http",
    "interval_sec": 60,
    "expected_status": "200",
    "enabled": true
  },
  "state": {
    "status": "up",
    "last_check_at": "2026-05-07T10:21:01Z",
    "evidence_buffer": [
      { "region": "EU", "status_code": 200, "ttfb_ms": 182 }
    ]
  }
}

Capture the ID for the rest of the Quickstart:

MONITOR_ID=1287

Check current status

Capture the monitor ID from the create response, then poll it:

curl https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/api/v1/monitors/$MONITOR_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIMEMONITORING_API_KEY"

Add a webhook

Webhooks are account-level recipients, reusable across any number of monitors — not scoped to one monitor. Create one:

curl -X POST https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/api/v1/recipients \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIMEMONITORING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"ops-webhook","type":"webhook","config":{"url":"https://hooks.example.com/incident"}}'

The response includes the recipient’s id and a plaintext secret — copy the secret now, since no later read of this recipient returns it. Capture the ID:

RECIPIENT_ID=42

PUT on a monitor’s recipients replaces the complete set, so read the monitor’s current recipients first — a brand-new monitor can already carry the account’s default recipients:

curl https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/api/v1/monitors/$MONITOR_ID/recipients \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIMEMONITORING_API_KEY"

Then submit the full set, adding the new recipient to whatever came back:

curl -X PUT https://api.uptimemonitoring.com/api/v1/monitors/$MONITOR_ID/recipients \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPTIMEMONITORING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"recipients":[{"id":'"$RECIPIENT_ID"',"down_delay_s":0}]}'

See Webhooks for signature verification and the account-wide /api/v1/webhook-deliveries log, and Choose who gets alerts for the full attach/detach model. The older PUT /api/v1/monitors/{monitorID}/webhook endpoint still works but is deprecated — see Legacy monitor-scoped webhook endpoint.

Connect via MCP

Set up UptimeMonitoring as an MCP server in your preferred tool:

Claude — Add the MCP server in Claude Desktop settings or Claude Code
ChatGPT — Configure via the ChatGPT plugin/MCP settings
Cursor — Add to .cursor/mcp.json
OpenAI API — Use the MCP endpoint in your tool configuration

See the MCP docs for detailed setup instructions per host.

Use in GitHub Actions

- name: Verify deploy health
  uses: uptimemonitoring/assert-healthy@v1
  with:
    api-key: ${{ secrets.UPTIMEMONITORING_API_KEY }}
    monitor-id: ${{ vars.MONITOR_ID }}
    timeout: 120

This step waits up to 120 seconds for the monitor to report healthy, then fails the workflow if it doesn’t recover. See the GitHub Action docs for advanced options.