sentinel

Ping API

Manually pinging a monitor

The endpoint

Monitors can manually be pinged by sending a POST request to its unique URL:

$ curl -fsS -X POST https://boringbackup.com/ping/<key>

The report body

A request body is optional but it is highly recommended to send it. Data from the request is used to show details for the pings, such as database size, which can then be used to trigger additional anomaly alerts, for example.

This is what an example request payload looks like:

{
  "version": 1,
  "status": "success",
  "error": null,
  "database": "db_production",
  "bytes": 2621440,
  "duration": 1.842,
  "stores": [
    {
      "store": "s3",
      "success": true,
      "key": "database/db_production/2026/07/16-03-00-12.dump",
      "bytes": 2621440,
      "duration": 1.842,
      "error": null
    }
  ]
}

What counts as a failure

To report a failed backup attempt, send a non-success status field:

status	meaning	counts as
success	every store accepted the backup	a good run — keeps the monitor alive
partial_success	some stores failed, at least one succeeded	a failed run
error	the run produced no backup at all	a failed run

Any other value of status also counts as a failed run — only "success" is a good one.

A failed run is recorded and shown, but it is not a sign of a successful backup and it does not reset the overdue clock. See Alerts & states.