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Overview

The remove command deletes a monitored URL from the system by its ID. This stops all monitoring and alerting for that URL.

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Usage

watchdog remove <id>

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Aliases

  • rm

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Description

The remove command permanently deletes a URL from monitoring. It removes the entry from the database and cleans up all associated data in Redis. Once removed, the URL will no longer be checked and no alerts will be sent.

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Arguments

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id
integer
required
The unique identifier of the URL to remove. You can find this ID using the list command.

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Flags

This command has no flags.

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Examples

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Remove a URL by ID

watchdog remove 123
Expected output: 
Connected to PostgreSQL database!
URL successfully removing, ID: 123

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Using the short alias

watchdog rm 123

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Find ID and remove

First, list all URLs to find the ID: 
watchdog list
Then remove the URL: 
watchdog remove 5

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Validation

The command performs the following validations:
  1. ID required: The ID argument must be provided and greater than 0
  2. URL exists: The URL with the specified ID must exist in the database
  3. Database connection: Must successfully connect to PostgreSQL
  4. Redis connection: Must successfully connect to Redis
The remove operation is permanent and cannot be undone. If you remove a URL by mistake, you’ll need to add it again using the add command.

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Error handling

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Missing ID argument

watchdog remove
Error output: 
ID is required

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Invalid ID (0 or negative)

watchdog remove 0
Error output: 
ID is required

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URL not found

watchdog remove 999
Error output: 
Error removing url: no rows in result set

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Database connection failed

If PostgreSQL is not accessible: 
pgxpool connection failed: connection refused
Solution: Verify PostgreSQL is running and credentials in .env are correct.

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What happens when you remove a URL?

  1. The URL entry is deleted from the PostgreSQL database
  2. The URL is removed from its Redis monitoring queue
  3. All historical monitoring data for that URL is preserved (status checks, incidents)
  4. The Redis interval cache is refreshed to reflect the removal
  5. No further health checks or alerts will be sent
Removing a URL does not delete historical data like past incidents or status checks. This data remains in the database for historical analysis.

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Technical details

  • The command first retrieves the URL to determine its monitoring frequency
  • It then deletes the database entry
  • Finally, it refreshes the Redis cache for that frequency interval
  • This ensures the monitoring loop no longer attempts to check the removed URL

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Common use cases

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Decommissioned service

When a service is retired: 
watchdog list --status=healthy
watchdog remove 42

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Duplicate entry

If you accidentally added a URL twice: 
watchdog list
# Find the duplicate ID
watchdog remove 15

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Testing cleanup

After testing, remove test URLs: 
watchdog remove 100
watchdog remove 101
watchdog remove 102

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See also

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