Watchdog
Proactive monitoring — set rules on your log sources, get notified when conditions are met, optionally auto-run a full diagnosis
Watchdog turns SigSentry from a reactive tool ("something's wrong, run an analysis") into a proactive one ("alert me when something looks off, and skip the manual step"). You define rules against your log sources; Watchdog watches around the clock and notifies you — or runs a full analysis automatically — when a rule fires.
When to use it
- You want to be paged before customers report an issue
- You have known error patterns you'd like to catch automatically
- You're triaging incidents from log dashboards manually and want to skip that step
How it works
Rule types
Count thresholds, rate thresholds, regex pattern matches, or spike detection.
Scheduling
Fixed-interval checks or randomized averages — pick what fits your traffic shape.
Alert behavior
Notify-only or auto-analyze. Cooldown and daily cap to control noise.
Cost calculator
Estimate analyses consumption before turning a rule on.
Dry-run
Replay a rule against the past 24 hours of logs to see how often it would have fired.
Activity feed
Browse what fired, when, and why. The audit trail for proactive monitoring.
Quick walkthrough
Pick a log source
Open Project → Watchdog → New rule. Pick the log source you want to monitor. Watchdog operates per-source, so a project with multiple sources gets multiple rules.
Choose a rule type
Error count, error rate, pattern match, or spike detection. Each fits a different operational shape — see Rule types.
Set thresholds and lookback
Watchdog evaluates each rule against the last N minutes of logs. The default lookback is 30 minutes — long enough to smooth out brief blips, short enough to catch real problems quickly.
Pick alert behavior
Notify-only sends a message to your channels. Auto-analyze runs a full diagnosis when the rule fires and posts the result. See Alert behavior.
Dry-run, then enable
Always dry-run before enabling. It replays the rule against recent logs and shows you exactly how often it would have fired — saves you from a noisy rule going live.
Plan limits
| Plan | Watchdog rules per project |
|---|---|
| Starter | 0 (Watchdog disabled) |
| Pro | 3 |
| Business | 10 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
Each enabled rule consumes scheduled checks against your log source. Auto-analyze rules also consume your monthly analysis quota — use the cost calculator to estimate.