---
title: "Health and heartbeats"
description: "What fleet health shows, and what each state means."
url: "https://docs.octo.ad/agents/health-and-heartbeats/"
id: "agents/health-and-heartbeats"
type: "reference"
audience: "operator"
dateModified: "2026-11-06"
productArea: "agents at work"
keywords: ["health", "heartbeats"]
---

# Health and heartbeats

> What fleet health shows, and what each state means.

## States

| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Held | The lane was braked on purpose. It reads held, not broken. |
| Quiet for no reason | The lane went silent without being braked. It raises its hand. |
| Unknown | The platform could not read the signal. Unknown is never shown as healthy. |

## Heartbeats and alerts

Heartbeats run on every worker and service. Alerts fire on a change of state, not on a timer. The briefing tells operators what moved, what is stuck and what is waiting on them.