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Render cron job monitoring with RunVouch
Render cron job monitoring beyond the dashboard: Render shows each cron run's log and exit status. It does not page you when runs stop, and exit 0 with an empty output is a success.
How it runs on Render Cron Jobs
The Cron Job service's command field. The build installs runvouch from requirements.txt.
Store the key
Environment tab of the cron job service: RUNVOUCH_KEY. Environment groups work too.
Wrap the job
# Render cron job command rv run nightly-report --log /tmp/report.log -- python report.py
rv fails open: if RunVouch is unreachable the job still runs and you get one warning line.
Register the cadence and caps
rv agent nightly-report --cadence 24h --grace 30m --max-runtime 1h --evidence --cap-run-cost 2
Register the agent once, from anywhere with the key. Cadence is what turns a schedule that stopped into an alert; --evidence makes a run without evidence a failure; the caps pause the agent when it overspends.
What goes silent on Render Cron Jobs
- A suspended service, or a cron job whose schedule was edited, stops without notification.
- Cron jobs on Render have no persistent disk by default; use
--logor URL evidence rather than a file that must survive the run.
What Render Cron Jobs does not tell you
Render shows each cron job's runs with start time, duration and exit code in the dashboard, and sends failure notifications for deploys, not for cron runs. A suspended service, a cron job whose schedule was changed, or a build that failed and left the previous command in place, shows as an absence in the run list that nobody is watching.
What RunVouch detects
| Alert | What it means here |
|---|---|
| MISSED | cadence plus grace passed and no run started |
| FAILED | non-zero exit or a reported failure, with the stderr excerpt |
| NO_EVIDENCE | the run said ok but the file, URL or assertion you required is missing |
| STALLED | a run started and never ended within max runtime |
| RETRY_STORM | the same tool called with identical input many times in one run |
| BUDGET_RUN / BUDGET_DAY | cost cap crossed; the agent is paused until you resume it |
| DRIFT | duration or output size far off its 7-run baseline |
Set up in two minutes
- Get a free key (3 agents, no card) and store it where this page says.
- wrap the job: copy the snippet above into the scheduled job.
- Register the cadence once:
rv agent nightly-report --cadence 24h --grace 30m --evidence, or let the first run create the agent and set the cadence on the dashboard. - Send one test alert:
curl -X POST https://api.runvouch.com/v1/settings/test-alert -H "X-API-Key: $RUNVOUCH_KEY". The next missed, failed or empty run reaches the same channels.
Also running platforms?
Railway cron schedules. Fly.io scheduled Machines. Cron inside Docker (supercronic, crond). The full list of runtimes is on integrations, and the same agent can report from several of them: one job, one cadence, wherever it happens to run.
Need a key? Get a free key · Stuck? contact