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Quickstart

Set up data pipeline monitoring in five steps.

This guide walks you through signing up, connecting a database, creating your first rule, and configuring alerts.

1. Create Your Account

Visit app.freshguard.dev and sign in with GitHub, Google, or Microsoft. No credit card is required — the Free plan includes 5 monitored tables and 1 data source.

After signing in you’ll be prompted to create a workspace. This is the container for your team’s sources, rules, and alerts.

2. Add a Data Source

Navigate to Sources in the sidebar and click Add Source.

  1. Choose your database type (BigQuery, MySQL, Snowflake, SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Synapse, or DuckDB — availability depends on your plan).
  2. Enter your connection details. We recommend using a dedicated read-only account — see the Database Guides for setup instructions.
  3. Click Test Connection to verify FreshGuard can reach your database.
  4. Save the source.

Info

All credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM. FreshGuard never stores plaintext passwords.

3. Create a Monitoring Rule

Go to Rules and click Create Rule.

  1. Select the source you just added.
  2. Pick the table you want to monitor. FreshGuard lists available tables from your source.
  3. Choose the rule type — start with Freshness Check for your first rule.
  4. Configure the tolerance (e.g. “alert if not updated in 2 hours”).
  5. Set the check interval — how often FreshGuard should run this check. The Free plan supports intervals down to every 6 hours.
  6. Save the rule.

FreshGuard will run the first check immediately so you can see results right away.

4. Set Up Alert Destinations

Go to Settings and open the Alert Destinations tab.

  • Email (Free) — Alerts are sent to your account email by default. You can add additional email addresses.
  • Slack (Starter+) — Click Add Slack, authorize FreshGuard in your workspace, and pick a channel.
  • Webhook (Professional+) — Enter a URL to receive alert payloads via HTTP POST.

5. Verify It Works

Back on the Rules page, your rule should show its first check result within a few moments. You’ll see either a green Passing badge or, if the table is stale, an orange Failing badge with an alert dispatched to your destinations.

Tip

Use the Manual Check button on any rule to trigger an immediate check without waiting for the next scheduled run.

What’s Next