Firecrawl Monitor

---
name: firecrawl-monitor
description: Create Firecrawl monitors that watch pages, sites, or web search results and send change alerts by email or webhook.
allowed-tools:
  - Bash(firecrawl *)
  - Bash(npx firecrawl *)
---

# 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-cli): search → scrape → map → 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`      |
| `-o, --output <path>`      | Output file path                                                          |
| `--pretty`                 | Pretty-print JSON output                                                  |

Minimum schedule interval is **15 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 most results come back `ignored`, 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.

| 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.

## 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-cli](../firecrawl-cli/SKILL.md) — top-level workflow guide