Using Oh Dear to monitor your API responses
Published on June 17, 2026 by Freek Van der Herten
Oh Dear can now better tell whether your API is actually up. On top of checking the status code, it inspects the JSON your API returns and makes sure the right values are in there.
A 200 only means the server answered, not that the answer was any good. Your API can return a 200 with an empty list or a "status": "maintenance" body, and a plain uptime check stays green. For an API, the body is the product, so we added response body assertions.
On the new body assertions tab in the uptime check settings, you pick a path to a field in the JSON, choose a condition, and give us a value.
Let's demonstrate how you can the Star Wars API. To check that the first film is still A New Hope, set the path to 0.title, the condition to equals, and the value to A New Hope.
You don't have to guess at your paths. The "Test against your URL" button runs your assertions against the live response right in the form.
When the body assertions doesn't match what you expect, we fail the uptime check and show you the reason in the report (and all notifications)
Hope you'll like this new feature!
