firecrawl-monitor · git:20260820.41cc07c · 2026-08-20 · sha256 db1325a212ccfca5
firecrawl-monitor git:20260820.41cc07cA
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---
name: firecrawl-monitor
description: |
Alert by webhook/email on web changes — use for "monitor/watch/track/alert me when": recurring checks on known URLs (prefer over repeated one-off scrapes) or web-wide watches for new results (queries + goal).
allowed-tools:
- Bash(firecrawl *)
- Bash(npx firecrawl-cli *)
---
# firecrawl monitor
Detect when content on a website changes and get notified by webhook or email. Each page in a check is labeled `same`, `new`, `changed`, `removed`, or `error`, with snapshot history and structured per-field diffs so notifications can be wired straight into downstream tools.
Monitors come in two flavors: **page monitors** watch URLs you already have (a page, a list, or a whole site via crawl) for changes, and **web monitors** watch the whole web via search for _new_ results that match a goal — see [Web monitors](#web-monitors-monitor-the-web).
**Pick a target mode** by what you're watching:
| Mode | Flags | Watches |
| ----------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Single page | `--page <url>` | one URL, for changes |
| URL batch | `--scrape-urls <url,url,...>` | several URLs, for changes |
| Whole site | `--crawl-url <root-url>` | every page a crawl discovers, for changes |
| Web search | `--queries <q,...>` + `--goal` | the **whole web**, for _new_ results matching the goal |
The first three watch URLs you already have. **Web search** is the odd one out — there's no fixed URL; it runs your queries each check and alerts on results it hasn't seen before. `--goal` is required with `--queries`. (See [Web monitors](#web-monitors-monitor-the-web).)
## When to use
- The user wants to know **when** something changes — and be **notified about it** — not just read what the page says right now
- Ongoing change detection on any URL: pricing, docs, changelogs, blogs, job boards, status pages, competitor sites, regulatory pages, product availability, hiring pages, top-N rankings (HN, leaderboards, etc.)
- **Monitoring the web** for _new_ results rather than changes to a known page — new launches, funding rounds, papers, news, releases, or brand mentions surfaced by search across the whole web (a **web monitor**: `--queries` + `--goal`)
- "Alert me when...", "notify me when...", "email me if...", "send a webhook when...", "ping me if X changes", "track this page", "monitor the web for...", "watch for new..."
- Anywhere the user would otherwise wire up cron + a scraper + a diff library + SMTP themselves
- Step 5 in the [workflow escalation pattern](../firecrawl/SKILL.md): search → scrape → map + scrape → crawl → **monitor** → interact
**Bias toward `monitor`** whenever the request implies notifications or recurrence. A single page read once = `scrape`. A single page where the user wants to be told when it changes = `monitor --page <url> --goal "..." --email|--webhook-url ...`.
## Why use a monitor
- **Change-detection-as-a-service.** Firecrawl handles fetching, diffing, judging, and notifying — all server-side. No cron, no diff library, no SMTP setup, no snapshot DB to manage.
- **Notifications first.** Webhooks (`monitor.page` as each page finishes, `monitor.check.completed` after the check is reconciled) and email summaries that only fire when something actually changed or errored. External recipients confirm via per-recipient opt-in.
- **AI noise filter via `--goal`.** Set a plain-language goal and the change judge ignores formatting, whitespace, casing, punctuation, encoding, request/session IDs, cache busters, tracking params, generic metadata, and unrelated page chrome — so notifications are about content the user actually cares about, not page churn.
- **Structured per-field diffs.** JSON-mode change tracking returns keyed diffs like `plans[0].price: "$19/mo" → "$24/mo"` instead of a wall of unified diff. Drops straight into a Slack message, CI step, or internal tool.
- **Simple page-status model.** Each page in a check returns `same`, `new`, `changed`, `removed`, or `error`. Easy to filter, easy to act on.
- **Snapshot history without infra.** Point-in-time snapshots are kept for diffing via `--retention-days`; no storage to provision.
- **Watch many things at once.** One monitor can watch many pages or diff every page discovered by a recurring site crawl.
- **No scheduling glue.** Cron normalization and `nextRunAt` are computed for you, with natural-language schedules supported (`"every 30 minutes"`, `"hourly"`, `"daily at 9:00"`).
## Quick start
```bash
# Single page, natural-language schedule, email alert
firecrawl monitor create --name "Blog" --schedule "every 30 minutes" \
--goal "Alert when a new blog post is published." \
--page https://example.com/blog \
--email alerts@example.com
# Multiple pages, one monitor
firecrawl monitor create --name "Product pages" --schedule "every 30 minutes" \
--goal "Alert when pricing, docs, or changelog content changes." \
--scrape-urls https://example.com/pricing,https://example.com/docs,https://example.com/changelog
# Whole-site crawl per check (every discovered page is diffed)
firecrawl monitor create --name "Docs site" --schedule "hourly" \
--goal "Alert when any docs page is added, removed, or substantively changed." \
--crawl-url https://docs.example.com
# Web monitor — search the whole web for NEW results matching a goal (--goal required)
firecrawl monitor create --name "Competitor launches" --schedule "daily at 9:00" \
--queries "competitor product launch,competitor funding round" \
--goal "Alert when a competitor announces a new product or raises funding." \
--search-window 7d --max-results 20 \
--email alerts@example.com
# Webhook notifications
firecrawl monitor create --name "Docs webhook" --schedule "every 30 minutes" \
--goal "Alert when docs content changes." \
--page https://example.com/docs \
--webhook-url https://example.com/hook \
--webhook-events monitor.page,monitor.check.completed
# Manage and inspect
firecrawl monitor list --limit 20
firecrawl monitor get <monitorId>
firecrawl monitor run <monitorId> # trigger a check now
firecrawl monitor checks <monitorId> # list all checks
firecrawl monitor check <monitorId> <checkId> --page-status changed
firecrawl monitor update <monitorId> --state paused
firecrawl monitor delete <monitorId>
```
Subcommands: `create | list | get | update | delete | run | checks | check`.
## Options
| Option | Description |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `--name <name>` | Monitor name (required on create) |
| `--goal <text>` | Plain-language change goal (auto-enables the AI change judge) |
| `--schedule <text>` | Natural-language schedule (`every 30 minutes`, `hourly`, `daily`) |
| `--cron <expression>` | Cron schedule (e.g. `*/30 * * * *`) |
| `--timezone <tz>` | Schedule timezone (default: `UTC`) |
| `--page <url>` | Single page URL to scrape on each check |
| `--scrape-urls <list>` | Comma-separated URLs to scrape on each check |
| `--crawl-url <url>` | Root URL for a crawl target (every discovered page gets diffed) |
| `--queries <list>` | Comma-separated search queries for a **web monitor** (requires `--goal`) |
| `--search-window <window>` | Web-monitor recency: `5m`, `15m`, `1h`, `6h`, `24h`, `7d` (default `24h`) |
| `--max-results <n>` | Web-monitor results per query, 1–50 (default `10`) |
| `--include-domains <list>` | Restrict web-monitor results to these domains (comma-separated) |
| `--exclude-domains <list>` | Exclude these domains from web-monitor results (comma-separated) |
| `--webhook-url <url>` | Webhook destination |
| `--webhook-events <list>` | `monitor.page`, `monitor.check.completed` (comma-separated) |
| `--email <list>` | Comma-separated email recipients |
| `--retention-days <n>` | Snapshot retention window |
| `--state <state>` | `active` or `paused` (update only — use `--state`, not `--status`) |
| `--page-status <state>` | Filter `check` results: `same`, `new`, `changed`, `removed`, `error` |
| `--limit <n>` | Max results (`list`, `checks`) or page results (`check`) |
| `--offset <n>` | Result offset (`list`, `checks`) |
| `--skip <n>` | Page-result offset (`check`) |
| `-o, --output <path>` | Output file path |
| `--pretty` | Pretty-print JSON output |
Minimum schedule interval is **5 minutes**. Monitoring is **not available for zero-data-retention teams**.
## Web monitors (monitor the web)
Page and crawl monitors watch URLs you already have. A **web monitor** watches the whole web instead: give it search queries and a goal, and each check runs the searches, judges every result against your goal, and alerts you on **new** results you haven't seen before. Reach for it when there's no URL to bookmark yet — new product launches, funding rounds, papers, news, releases, or brand mentions.
```bash
firecrawl monitor create --name "AI model releases" --schedule "daily at 9:00" \
--queries "new AI model release,frontier model launch" \
--goal "Alert when a major lab releases a new AI model. Ignore tutorials and listicles." \
--search-window 7d --max-results 20 \
--webhook-url https://example.com/hook
```
- **`--queries` and `--goal` are both required.** Queries are comma-separated; the goal is what the AI judge scores each result against, so only on-topic results alert you.
- **`--search-window`** sets recency — `5m`, `15m`, `1h`, `6h`, `24h`, `7d` (default `24h`). Widen it for niche topics that don't publish often.
- **`--max-results`** caps results per query, 1–50 (default `10`).
- **`--include-domains` / `--exclude-domains`** restrict or exclude sources (comma-separated).
- **Result model:** web-monitor results are labeled `new` (first time seen) or `same` (already seen on a prior check) — never `changed`/`removed`. Dedup means a result alerts you **once**, when it first appears. Webhooks and email work exactly as they do for page monitors.
- The [`--goal` guidance](#writing-a-good---goal) below applies: state what counts as a match in plain language and add `Ignore ...` only for intent-specific exclusions.
## Writing good `--queries` (web monitors)
For a web monitor, **queries control recall** (what the search retrieves) and **the goal controls precision** (which results alert). Tune both — a perfect goal can't alert on a result the queries never pulled in, and broad queries with a vague goal produce constant low-value alerts.
- Write **keywords, not sentences**: `OpenAI new model release`, not `tell me when OpenAI releases a new model`.
- Quote multi-word entities (`"Llama 4"`); group synonyms with `OR` (`launch OR release OR announcement`).
- Keep each query tight (~2–6 terms). One broad query usually beats several narrow ones — extra queries split the `--max-results` budget without adding coverage.
- One query per **distinct** subject. Several facets of one subject = one query; only split for genuinely separate entities (e.g. "OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google").
- No `site:` operators in queries — use `--include-domains` / `--exclude-domains`.
**What good looks like:** a healthy web monitor mostly returns `new: 0` and alerts only on genuinely new, on-goal results. If many retrieved results are off-goal, the queries pull noise the goal rejects — tighten the queries. If a topic returns nothing for long stretches, the queries are too narrow or `--search-window` too tight — broaden them. If the user dismisses alerts, the goal is too broad — add an intent-specific `Ignore ...`. The aim is high precision with enough recall: every alert worth acting on, nothing real missed.
## Writing a good `--goal`
The goal is what the AI change judge uses to decide whether a page is `changed` vs `same`. Convert the user's intent into a concise 2-3 sentence goal:
- Start with `Alert when ...` and state the trigger using the user's wording.
- Restate any scope they mentioned: top N, price, role type, region, company, topic, status, or a specific entity.
- Add an `Ignore ...` sentence **only** for intent-specific exclusions (e.g. points/comments for rankings, marketing copy for pricing, general company-page updates for job listings).
- Do **not** repeat generic noise exclusions — the judge already handles whitespace, casing, punctuation, encoding, formatting-only changes, request/session IDs, cache busters, tracking params, generic metadata noise, and unrelated page chrome.
- Don't invent page-specific sections, entities, thresholds, exclusions, or business rules unless the user mentioned them.
- If the user is vague or asks for "any change", keep the goal broad and don't add exclusions. If the user mentions noise they do not care about, include that explicitly.
| User says | Good goal |
| --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `top 10 hackernews stories` | `Alert when stories enter, leave, or change rank within the Hacker News top 10. Ignore points, comments, and timestamps. Do not alert on changes outside the top 10.` |
| `pricing changes` | `Alert when pricing information changes, including prices, plan names, billing periods, tiers, limits, or included features. Ignore unrelated marketing copy.` |
| `new engineering roles` | `Alert when a new engineering role is posted. Ignore general company-page updates unless they add, remove, or change an engineering role.` |
| `track this page` | `Alert when substantive visible content on this page changes.` |
| `any change` | `Alert when any visible page content changes, including copy, numbers, timestamps, counters, links, and layout text.` |
## JSON-mode change tracking (structured per-field diffs)
By default monitors diff each page's markdown and return a unified text diff. When the user cares about **specific structured fields** (price, headline, in-stock flag, items in a list), use JSON-mode change tracking. The CLI flags don't cover this — pass a JSON body via positional file or piped stdin:
```bash
cat > pricing-monitor.json <<'EOF'
{
"name": "Pricing watch",
"goal": "Alert when plan prices or headline features change.",
"schedule": { "text": "hourly", "timezone": "UTC" },
"targets": [{
"type": "scrape",
"urls": ["https://example.com/pricing"],
"scrapeOptions": {
"formats": [{
"type": "changeTracking",
"modes": ["json"],
"prompt": "Extract pricing tiers and headline features for each plan.",
"schema": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"plans": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"name": { "type": "string" },
"price": { "type": "string" },
"features": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string" } }
}
}
}
}
}
}]
}
}]
}
EOF
firecrawl monitor create pricing-monitor.json
# or: cat pricing-monitor.json | firecrawl monitor create
```
Each changed page in the check response then carries a per-field diff plus a snapshot of the current full extraction:
```json
{
"url": "https://example.com/pricing",
"status": "changed",
"diff": {
"json": {
"plans[0].price": { "previous": "$19/mo", "current": "$24/mo" },
"plans[1].features[2]": {
"previous": "10 GB storage",
"current": "25 GB storage"
}
}
},
"snapshot": {
"json": {
"plans": [
/* current full extraction */
]
}
}
}
```
Use `modes: ["json", "git-diff"]` for **mixed mode** — you get both `diff.json` (per-field) and `diff.text` (markdown sidecar), and the page is marked `changed` whenever either surface changed. For markdown-only monitors, `diff.text` holds the unified diff and `diff.json` is a `parse-diff` AST (`{ files: [...] }`); there is no `snapshot`.
## Tips
- **Prefer one monitor over repeated one-off scrapes** whenever the user wants the same URL checked more than once.
- **Use `--state paused` (via `update`), not `delete`**, when temporarily silencing a monitor.
- **`--retention-days`** controls how long snapshots are kept for diffing. Lower it for high-frequency monitors to save storage.
- **External email recipients must opt in.** First time they're added, Firecrawl sends a confirmation email and they only receive alerts after they confirm. Team-owned email addresses are auto-confirmed. Once a recipient unsubscribes, they must be re-added by the owner to get a fresh confirmation email.
- **`firecrawl monitor run <id>`** triggers a check immediately — useful for smoke-testing a monitor right after creating it without waiting for the next scheduled run.
- **Filter check pages** with `--page-status changed` (or `new`, `removed`, `error`) to skip the noise from `same` pages.
- **Use `--page-status` (not `--status`)** when filtering check pages — `--status` is reserved for the global CLI status flag.
- **Monitor-triggered scrapes default `maxAge` to `0`** — every check performs a fresh scrape unless `scrapeOptions.maxAge` is set explicitly in a JSON payload.
## See also
- [firecrawl-scrape](../firecrawl-scrape/SKILL.md) — one-off scrape; escalate to `monitor` when checks become recurring
- [firecrawl-crawl](../firecrawl-crawl/SKILL.md) — one-off crawl; pair with `--crawl-url` here for recurring crawl diffs
- [firecrawl](../firecrawl/SKILL.md) — top-level workflow guide