Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about sending messages, alerts, and reminders with Pingwire.
What is Pingwire and who is it for?
Pingwire is a developer-first messaging and notification platform. It is for developers and teams who want to push messages, alerts, and reminders into a real-time chat — and to phones via web push — from servers, scripts, CI, cron jobs, and plugins. It runs as a managed service at pingwire.dev, and is also available to self-host for teams who want to run it on their own infrastructure.
How fast can I send my first message?
Under 30 seconds. Create an API key, then POST to https://pingwire.dev/api/v1/messages.php with a Bearer token and a JSON body containing channel and text. The message appears instantly in chat and as push.
How do I send a message from a bash script or cron job?
Use one curl command or the pingwire CLI: pingwire send --channel deploys "Build passed". You can also pipe a file: pingwire send --channel deploys < build.log.
What is the difference between the API and incoming webhooks?
The API (/api/v1/messages.php) uses a Bearer API key and is best for your own code. Incoming webhooks (/hook/{token}) need no auth header — the URL token is the secret — and are ideal for third-party tools like GitHub, CI systems, and uptime monitors.
Can I get notifications on my phone?
Yes. Install Pingwire as a PWA and enable web push in Account → Notifications. Messages then arrive as push notifications; urgent ones require interaction.
Do I get notified for my own messages?
Yes. Sends from your scripts, CLI, webhooks, or the API push to your phone on a single account — once notifications are enabled on a device — with no second account needed. Only the messages you type yourself in the chat are skipped, so you are never pinged for your own typing. A separate sender (bot) account is optional — handy for teams, shared channels, or a dedicated send-only identity.
How do priorities work?
Each message has a priority: min, low, default, high, or urgent. Higher priorities are surfaced more prominently, and urgent push notifications stay on screen until acknowledged.
How do I schedule recurring reminders?
Use the reminders UI or POST to /api/v1/reminders.php with a cron expression and timezone. A system cron job delivers due reminders every minute and recomputes the next run.
What are the rate limits?
API sends: 120/min per key. Webhooks: 60/min per token. Reminder creation: 60/min per key. Exceeding a limit returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header.
Is my data private?
Yes. On the managed service at pingwire.dev, operated by BRANDISTRIES LLC, your data is encrypted in transit, never sold, and handled per our Privacy Policy at pingwire.dev/privacy — and you can export or delete it anytime. Passwords are hashed with Argon2id and API keys are stored hashed. If your team wants full control, Pingwire is also self-hostable on your own server and MariaDB database.
Do I need an SDK?
No. Pingwire is plain HTTP, so any language that can make a request works — curl, Bash, Python, Node, PHP, Go, and more. The docs include copy-paste examples for each.
Can Pingwire monitor my website or cron jobs?
Yes. Uptime monitors check a URL on a schedule and alert on a bad status, missing keyword, timeout, or an expiring SSL certificate. Heartbeat monitors are a dead man's switch for cron jobs and background workers. Traffic monitors alert when visits flatline or spike. All three open incidents and push your phone.
Does Pingwire have public status pages?
Yes. You can publish your monitors on a public status page at a shareable link, so your users see current status and recent history without asking you. The link is tokenized and can be rotated at any time to revoke access.
What happens if nobody acknowledges an alert?
Escalation policies handle that. You define an ordered chain of people or channels, and if an incident goes unacknowledged, Pingwire notifies the next step in the chain automatically.
Can people subscribe to my notifications without an account?
Yes — that is what QR Channels are for. Anyone scans your QR code, taps subscribe, and receives your pushes with no account or app install. You can also group subscribers into segments and target a send at just one segment.
Can I message myself?
Yes. Send to your own username and the message lands in a private "Notes to self" thread and pushes to your own devices — a personal reminder lane that works from the API, CLI, and the Claude connector.
Does Pingwire work with Claude and other AI assistants?
Yes. Pingwire ships an MCP connector, so an assistant like Claude can send messages, schedule reminders, manage QR channels, and create or read monitors as part of a workflow. See pingwire.dev/docs/mcp.php for setup.
Is there a browser extension?
A Chrome extension with a notification inbox and send-tab-to-phone has been submitted to the Chrome Web Store and is in review. This page will link it as soon as it is approved.