Getting Started with CronFu in 5 Minutes

This guide walks you through setting up CronFu to monitor your cron jobs. By the end, you'll have a working monitor that tracks every run, captures output, and alerts on failures.

Step 1: Sign Up

Head to app.cronfu.dev/signup and create your account. No credit card required for the free tier.

Step 2: Install the CLI

curl -fsSL https://app.cronfu.dev/install | bash

This downloads the latest cronfu binary for your platform, verifies the checksum, and installs to /usr/local/bin/cronfu.

Then connect it to your account:

cronfu configure

Follow the prompts to sign in and provision your keys.

Step 3: Wrap Your Cron Job

Edit your crontab (crontab -e) and wrap your command with cronfu exec:

# Before
0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh

# After
0 2 * * * cronfu exec nightly-backup -- /usr/local/bin/backup.sh

That's it. CronFu will:

Auto-create a monitor called nightly-backup on the first run
Send a run ping when the job starts and complete or fail when it finishes
Capture output (stdout + stderr) so you can debug failures from the dashboard
Preserve exit codes — if your script exits with code 1, cronfu exec does too

You can add flags for more control:

# Set a timeout, environment, and tags
0 2 * * * cronfu exec nightly-backup \
  --timeout 30m --env production --tag backup,critical \
  -- /usr/local/bin/backup.sh

Step 4: Check Your Dashboard

Open app.cronfu.dev — your monitors should appear within seconds. You'll see status, last run time, duration, and captured output for every job.

Navigate to a monitor's Settings tab to set a schedule (e.g., 0 2 * * *). CronFu will alert you if the job misses its expected window. Add a grace period (e.g., 60 seconds) to avoid false alarms for jobs that start a few seconds late.

Alternative: curl Pings (No CLI)

If you can't install the CLI, use curl directly in your crontab:

0 2 * * * curl -fsS "https://ping.cronfu.dev/p/YOUR_TELEMETRY_KEY/nightly-backup?state=run" \
  && /usr/local/bin/backup.sh \
  && curl -fsS "https://ping.cronfu.dev/p/YOUR_TELEMETRY_KEY/nightly-backup?state=complete" \
  || curl -fsS "https://ping.cronfu.dev/p/YOUR_TELEMETRY_KEY/nightly-backup?state=fail"

Get your telemetry key from Settings → API Keys in the dashboard. CronFu auto-creates the monitor on the first ping.

The CLI approach is recommended — it handles run/complete/fail signals, output capture, exit code forwarding, and timeouts in a single command.

Next Steps

Set up alerts — Go to Notification Lists and add email, Slack, Discord, or webhook channels, then assign to your monitors
CLI reference — All commands: list, ping, pause, resume, tag, set
API reference — Automate monitor management via REST

Go to your dashboard →