Heartbeat is an operational signal
A recent heartbeat confirms that the MT5-side agent can still reach the service. It should be evaluated together with account and deployment state.

Managed delivery has explicit states
Suspended, restarting or offline deployments should not receive new instructions. Recovery history belongs in the admin audit trail.
Escalate with evidence
When health degrades, record the latest agent version, heartbeat time and deployment incident before manual intervention.
Continue with our guide to copy-trading risk controls before connecting.
Reference: MetaTrader 5 account connection documentation.