Lighthog Documentation

Getting started

1. Create a workspace and add your first monitor. One URL is enough — you can add ports and keywords later.
2. Pick an interval. Free monitors check every 60 seconds; paid plans go down to 15 seconds.
3. Wire an alert channel (below). A monitor without a channel still records downtime, but nobody gets woken up.

Monitor types

Four types cover most setups. A check fails only after it fails from at least two of our regions, so a single network blip never pages you.

• HTTP(s) · status code, response body keyword, TLS expiry, max response time.
• Ping · ICMP reachability and latency, IPv4 and IPv6.
• Port · TCP connect on any port: databases, mail, game servers.
• Keyword · fails when a string appears or disappears from the page (great for "error" banners).

Alert channels

Attach any mix of channels to a monitor. Alerts fire on down and on recovery, and include the last three checks, response time and the failing region.

• Email · always on, unlimited recipients
• Slack / Microsoft Teams · bot posts into a channel you pick
• SMS · Hound plan and up, carrier rates apply
• Webhook · raw JSON POST for anything custom

Escalation: if the alert isn't acknowledged within five minutes, Lighthog re-notifies the next person on the roster.

Query the API

Everything the dashboard does is available as JSON. Create a key under Settings → API keys. Keys are workspace-scoped and read-only.

# add a monitor and alert to Slack on failure
curl -X POST https://api.lighthog.dev/v2/monitors \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LIGHTHOG_KEY" \
  -d type=http \
  -d url=https://example.com \
  -d interval=30 \
  -d alert_channels=slack,email

Responses are cached for 30 seconds. Rate limits per plan:

Limits & plans

• Hoglet checks every 60 seconds; Hound every 30; Watchdog every 15.
• History retention: 6 months (Hoglet), 24 months (Hound), unlimited (Watchdog).
• Pausing a monitor stops checks and billing for it, but keeps its history.

Common setup mistakes are covered in the blog, or write to the address in the footer.