API Checks

API checks extend website checks with full support for REST endpoint monitoring, including custom HTTP methods, headers, and request bodies.

HTTP Methods

API checks support all standard HTTP methods:

Method	Use Case
GET	Retrieve data, health endpoints
POST	Test endpoint availability with payload
PUT	Verify update endpoints
PATCH	Verify partial update endpoints
DELETE	Test deletion endpoints (use with caution)
HEAD	Check endpoint availability without body
OPTIONS	Verify CORS configuration

Custom Headers

Add custom headers to your API check requests. Common use cases:

Authorization - Authorization: Bearer <token> for authenticated endpoints
Content-Type - Content-Type: application/json for JSON payloads
Accept - Accept: application/json to request specific response formats
Custom headers - Any application-specific headers your API requires

Note: Avoid including sensitive credentials in check headers. Consider using a dedicated monitoring API key with read-only access.

Request Body

For POST, PUT, and PATCH methods, you can specify a request body. The body is sent as-is, so ensure your Content-Type header matches the body format.

JSON Example

Set Content-Type: application/json and provide a JSON body:


{
  "ping": true
}

Response Validation

Combine API checks with response validation to verify that your API returns the expected data:

JSONPath expressions - Extract specific values from JSON responses
Expected values - Compare extracted values against expected results
Text containment - Verify that the response contains specific text

Best Practices

Use dedicated health check endpoints (e.g., /health or /api/status)
Set up a monitoring-specific API key with minimal permissions
Use response validation to verify response content, not just status codes
Monitor both the API itself and downstream dependencies