# Monitor a phone list on a schedule

`POST /api/v1/phone/monitors`

- Authentication: Secret API key as a bearer token
- Billing: Creation is free. Each run bills every number like a single lookup: 1 credit for a fresh valid answer, plus the live-check credits when the check answered; invalid, unassigned, suppressed and 7-day repeats are free.
- Group: Phone

Saves up to 500 numbers and re-checks them every week or every month. The first run starts right away and only sets the baseline; from the next run on, every number that was valid last time and is now invalid, in a block nobody holds or unreachable counts as decayed and is reported to the account's email. Runs honour the suppression list and the 7-day repeat cache. With `live_check` true, runs ask for the live carrier check whenever the service has it enabled, so decay also covers handsets that stopped answering.

Answers `201` with the monitor. The baseline run is queued, not finished: poll the monitor for `last_run_at` and `last_summary`.

## Request body

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | string | yes | A label for the dashboard and the decay alerts. At most 100 characters. |
| `numbers` | string[] | yes | 1 to 500 numbers in any notation; each item at most 32 characters. |
| `cadence` | string | yes | How often the list is re-checked. One of: weekly, monthly. |
| `country` | string | null | no | The region for numbers written without a calling code. |
| `live_check` | boolean | no | Ask for the live carrier check on every run where the service has it enabled. Default: . |

## Example request

```bash
curl -X POST https://spaw.co/api/v1/phone/monitors \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "name": "SMS audience",
  "numbers": [
    "+44 7911 012345",
    "020 7946 0018"
  ],
  "cadence": "monthly",
  "country": "GB"
}'
```

## Responses

### 201 — The monitor was saved and its baseline run queued.

```json
{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "monitor": {
            "id": 7,
            "name": "SMS audience",
            "cadence": "monthly",
            "number_count": 2,
            "country": "GB",
            "live_check": false,
            "next_run_at": "2026-10-05T10:12:44+00:00",
            "last_run_at": null,
            "last_summary": null,
            "created_at": "2026-09-05T10:12:44+00:00"
        }
    }
}
```

### 401 — The key is missing, malformed, or revoked.

```json
{
    "success": false,
    "error": {
        "code": "UNAUTHENTICATED",
        "message": "Provide a valid API key as a bearer token.",
        "request_id": "req_01m1kgdm4xngzmbmff68g94w0c"
    }
}
```

### 422 — The request body could not be validated; `error.errors` lists the fields.

```json
{
    "success": false,
    "error": {
        "code": "VALIDATION_FAILED",
        "message": "The email field is required.",
        "errors": {
            "email": [
                "The email field is required."
            ]
        },
        "request_id": "req_01m1kgdm4xngzmbmff68g94w0c"
    }
}
```

### 429 — Over 5 requests per second for the key. Retry after the limit resets.

```json
{
    "success": false,
    "error": {
        "code": "RATE_LIMITED",
        "message": "Too many requests. Retry after the limit resets.",
        "request_id": "req_01m1kgdm4xngzmbmff68g94w0c"
    }
}
```

## Error codes

- `UNAUTHENTICATED` — https://spaw.co/docs/errors/UNAUTHENTICATED
- `VALIDATION_FAILED` — https://spaw.co/docs/errors/VALIDATION_FAILED
- `RATE_LIMITED` — https://spaw.co/docs/errors/RATE_LIMITED

---

Canonical page: https://spaw.co/docs/api/create-phone-monitor · OpenAPI document: https://spaw.co/openapi.json · All endpoints: https://spaw.co/docs/api