Configuring Uptime Checks

The uptime settings panel lets you customize exactly how Domain Pilot checks your domain. Settings are organized into two tabs — Request and Response — with a Live Preview panel showing the constructed request in real time.

Request Settings

The Request tab controls what gets sent to your domain.

Subdomain

Check a specific subdomain instead of the root domain.

• Default — Empty (checks root domain)
• Examples — api, www, staging, app

If your domain is example.com and you enter api, the check targets api.example.com.

Check Path

The URL path to request.

• Default — /
• Examples — /, /health, /api/status, /ping

Use this to check a specific health endpoint rather than the homepage.

Request Type

• HTTPS (default) — Use for most sites
• HTTP — Only if your domain doesn't support HTTPS or you specifically want to monitor the HTTP endpoint

HTTP Method

• GET (default) — For most checks
• POST / PUT — If your health endpoint requires a request body
• HEAD — For lightweight checks that don't need the response body
• DELETE — For specific API endpoint testing

Timeout

Maximum time to wait for a response before marking the domain as down.

• Range — 1–60 seconds
• Default — 10 seconds

Set this higher for endpoints that are expected to be slow (e.g., a health check that tests database connectivity). Set it lower to catch slow responses early.

Redirect Handling

• Follow (default) — Follows all redirects and validates the final response
• Expect Redirect — Expects a 3xx response; if received, the check passes; otherwise it fails
• No Follow — Does not follow redirects; validates the first response directly

Use Expect Redirect when your domain intentionally redirects (e.g., HTTP to HTTPS, or example.com to www.example.com) and you want to verify the redirect is working.

Request Body

Only available when the HTTP method is POST or PUT. Choose a body type:

• Raw — Plain text body
• JSON — JSON-formatted body (e.g., {"key": "value"})
• Form — URL-encoded form data (e.g., key=value&another=value)

The correct Content-Type header is set automatically based on the body type you select.

Request Headers

Add custom headers to the monitoring request:

1. Click Add Header
2. Enter the Header Name (e.g., Authorization, X-API-Key)
3. Enter the Header Value (e.g., Bearer token123)
4. Add as many headers as needed
5. Click the X button to remove a header

Use custom headers to authenticate with protected endpoints, pass API keys, or set custom request parameters.

Response Settings

The Response tab controls how Domain Pilot validates the response from your domain.

Expected Status Codes

Define which HTTP status codes count as "up."

• Default — 200,201,202,203,204,205,206
• Format — Comma-separated, no spaces

When you modify this setting, only the status codes you specify are used — the defaults are replaced entirely.

Response Text

Verify that the response body contains specific text. If the text is not found, the check fails.

• Case Insensitive — Check the Case insensitive checkbox to match text regardless of capitalization

Examples:

• "status": "ok" — verify a JSON health response
• Welcome — verify a homepage loads correctly
• healthy — verify a health endpoint

Response Headers

Verify that specific headers are present in the response:

1. Click Add Header
2. Enter the Header Name to expect (e.g., X-Frame-Options)
3. Optionally enter the Header Value to match (leave empty to just check the header exists)

Testing Your Configuration

The Live Preview panel on the right side shows you exactly what will be sent and validated, including the full request URL, method, timeout, headers, and body.

Click Run Check & See Result to test your configuration against the live domain. The test result shows:

• Status — "Test Passed" (green) or "Test Failed" (red)
• Response Code — HTTP status code with color coding
• Response Time — How long the response took in milliseconds
• Validation Errors — List of specific validation failures (if any)
• Response Body Preview — Scrollable preview of the response body

Saving Settings

After configuring your settings:

1. Click Update to save your changes
2. A success notification confirms the save
3. Future monitoring checks use the new settings immediately

Click Cancel to discard changes and revert to the last saved configuration.