Web Monitoring API with Push Notifications
How to design a watch, a rule, and a push payload so the right event reaches the right consumer.
By AyeWatch Team3 min read
Short answer: A web monitoring API with push notifications watches a source, evaluates a relevance rule, and sends an event to a webhook or channel. AyeWatch does this for public pages and topics, with a summary payload instead of a raw diff.
AyeWatch is a web monitoring API and app. It watches public pages and topics and pushes a summary to push, email, Slack, Discord, or a webhook.
Relevance is the product
Every monitor can push something. The useful ones push only when the content matches a rule. "Price, plans, seats" is relevance. "The page changed" is a subscription to noise.
Write the rule before you pick the transport. The transport cannot fix a vague rule.
The watch object
A source, a rule, an interval, a channel, and an owner. Optionally a quiet window and a timezone. Keep one watch per source so a noisy page does not contaminate a clean one.
Separate watches also make the alert history readable. You can see which page produced which event.
The push payload
Event ID, watch ID, source URL, timestamp, summary, old value, new value, and a link. Add a signature header. The consumer should not need to fetch the page to decide what happened.
If the next step is automatic, include a machine-readable event type. "price_change" is easier to route than a paragraph.
Push versus webhook
Push notification is for a person with a phone. Webhook is for a server. Slack and Discord sit between the two: a person reads them, but a bot can too.
Pick the channel by who acts. Do not send a legal clause change to an on-call pager.
Test the whole path
Trigger a real change on a page you control. Watch the event reach the request bin, then staging, then production. Measure the delay at each hop.
AyeWatch Pro is $9/mo with 50 topics and hourly checks; Pro+ is $19/mo with 200 topics and ASAP mode. The API guide covers the architecture.
Ship a push pipeline
- Write the relevance rule in one sentence.
- Create one watch per source with an interval and an owner.
- Send events to a request bin and inspect the payload.
- Add signature verification, deduplication, and a retry policy.
Start a monitor in under a minute
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Try it free for 7 daysThe bottom line
Write the rule, then the payload, then the channel. Test the path with a page you control. If the event arrives without a second fetch, the pipeline is ready for production.
FAQ
What is a web monitoring API with push notifications?
A service that watches web sources and sends an event when content matching your rule appears. AyeWatch delivers summaries to push, Slack, email, or a webhook.
Can I filter which changes trigger a push?
Yes. Write a rule naming the fields that count and the noise to ignore. The monitor pushes only when the rule matches.
How fast are the pushes?
It depends on the interval. Pro offers hourly checks; Pro+ offers ASAP mode. Ask for the actual floor before you rely on minutes.
Do I need my own server?
Only if you consume a webhook. Push, email, Slack, and Discord need no server.