Healthchecks.io alerts as push notifications

July 23, 2026 · 3 min read

A failing cron job is loud. A cron job that silently stops running is the dangerous one. Healthchecks.io catches the silence – and its webhook integration lets you define the exact JSON body, so the push on your phone names the job that died.

Setup

Create an endpoint in the Webhooky app (Android / iOS), e.g. “Cron watchdog” with sound error_1.
In Healthchecks.io open Integrations → Webhook.
For “Execute on check going down”, set the URL to your endpoint, method POST, and this request body (plus header Content-Type: application/json):

{"title": "🚨 $NAME is $STATUS", "message": "Check $NAME went $STATUS at $NOW", "sound": "error_1"}

Healthchecks fills the $NAME, $STATUS and $NOW placeholders – so the push reads “🚨 nightly-backup is down”. Add a second webhook for “check going up” with a friendlier sound like level_up_2.

Why this combo is neat

Dead-man's-switch logic comes from Healthchecks; the ping is one curl line at the end of your cron job.
The loud part comes from Webhooky – a real alarm sound instead of an email that waits until morning.
The free tiers of both cover a typical homelab completely.

Get Webhooky

Free for your first 100 notifications – set up your endpoint in two minutes.