Monitoring

    Custom HTTP Methods & Headers

    Monitor endpoints behind authentication with custom headers.

    Part of API endpoint monitoring — the full answer, the facts and the alternatives in one place.

    Updated 2026-03-23
    2 min read
    HTTP
    headers
    POST

    Custom HTTP Methods & Headers#

    Monitor API endpoints, authenticated dashboards, and webhook receivers by specifying custom HTTP methods, request headers, request bodies, and response-body assertions. Configure everything in Edit Site → Advanced Monitoring.

    Supported Methods#

    GET (default), HEAD, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS. HEAD is the fastest and cheapest for uptime-only checks. Use POST/PUT when the endpoint requires a body to respond meaningfully.

    Custom Headers#

    Add arbitrary headers as key/value pairs. Common examples:

  1. Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOi... — for bearer-token protected APIs
  2. X-API-Key: sk_live_abc123 — for header-key auth
  3. User-Agent: LemWatch/1.0 — override the default user agent when a WAF blocks generic monitor traffic
  4. Cookie: session=... — for cookie-authenticated pages

    5. All headers are stored encrypted at rest and never appear in incident logs or public status pages.

    Request Body#

    For POST/PUT/PATCH, specify a body (JSON, form-encoded, or raw). LemWatch sends it verbatim on every check. Use this to monitor GraphQL endpoints, webhook receivers, or "search" endpoints that only respond to POST.

    Expected Body Assertion#

    Set an Expected Body Contains string. If the response body doesn't contain this substring, the site is marked as down even if the HTTP status is 200. This catches silent failures like:

  5. CMS returning a "maintenance mode" page with a 200 status
  6. API returning an empty array instead of expected data
  7. Reverse-proxy misconfig serving a placeholder page

    8. Expected Status Code#

    Override the default "2xx = up" rule. Useful when a 302 redirect or a 401 (for auth checks) is the correct healthy response.

    FAQ#

    Are custom headers visible to teammates?

    Only to users with Admin or Owner role. Editors and Viewers see header keys but not values.

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