POST Create Monitor

Create a scheduled website-change monitor

Last updated Jul 9, 2026

POSThttps://api.anakin.io/v1/monitors

Create a monitor that checks a URL every intervalMinutes and records a change whenever the page differs from the previous check.

A monitor has a scope: page (default) watches a single URL, site crawls the whole site each run and reports pages added, removed, and changed, and wire runs a managed Wire API action each run and diffs the JSON it returns. See Site monitors and Wire monitors for the scope-specific config, endpoints, and change shape.

Request Body

{
  "url": "https://example.com/product/123",
  "watchMode": "specific_data",
  "outputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": { "price": { "type": "number" }, "inStock": { "type": "boolean" } },
    "required": ["price"]
  },
  "intervalMinutes": 60,
  "aiMode": true,
  "aiGoal": "only when the price drops or it goes out of stock",
  "country": "us",
  "alertWebhookUrl": "https://your-app.com/hooks/anakin",
  "alertEmails": "you@example.com"
}

Only url and intervalMinutes are required. Every other field is optional — the defaults below are used when you omit it.

Parameter	Type	Description
`url` required	string	Page (or, for `site` scope, the root URL) to monitor. Must start with `http://` or `https://`.
`intervalMinutes` required	number	How often to check, in minutes. Minimum `15`.
`scope` optional	string	`page` (default) — watch this one URL. `site` — crawl the whole site each run and diff the page set. `wire` — run a Wire action each run and diff its JSON.
`maxPages` site only	number	Organic crawl budget — how many discovered pages to crawl per run, on top of any pinned `includePatterns` URLs. Total per run is capped at `50`. Bills 1 credit per page crawled.
`maxDepth` site only	number	Link hops to follow from the root during the organic crawl (`1`–`5`). Default `2`.
`includePatterns` site only	string[]	Pin pages to always track. A full URL is crawled directly every run — fetched even if discovery misses it — in addition to the organic crawl of up to `maxPages` more pages (this is how the dashboard's Inspect/Import hand-picking is stored). A bare path glob (e.g. `/blog/`) filters the organically-discovered pages. URLs must be on the monitor's own site* — off-site URLs are dropped.
`excludePatterns` site only	string[]	Skip URLs matching these globs.
`wireActionId` required for `wire`	string	The Wire action to run each check, e.g. `amazon.search_products`. See Wire monitors.
`wireCatalogSlug` wire only	string	Catalogue slug of the Wire site the action belongs to, e.g. `amazon`. Optional but recommended.
`wireCredentialId` wire only	string	A connected identity's credential id, required only when the action's auth mode is `required`.
`wireParams` wire only	object	Parameters passed to the action, e.g. `{ "query": "usb-c cable" }`. Shape depends on the action.
`wireWatchPaths` wire only	string[]	JSON paths from the action's result to diff (e.g. `["results.0.rank"]`). Empty = diff the whole payload. See Wire monitors.
`watchMode` optional	string	`full_page` (default) or `specific_data`. Site monitors always use `full_page`; wire monitors always diff the returned JSON (`specific_data`, set server-side).
`watchFormat` optional	string	`full_page` only — what to diff: `markdown` (default), `html`, or `cleaned_html`. Ignored for `specific_data`.
`outputSchema` required for `specific_data`	object	JSON Schema of the fields to track (AI-extracted). Only used — and required — in `specific_data` mode; ignored for `full_page`.
`aiMode` optional	boolean	Filter trivial noise and summarize meaningful changes. Adds +1 credit/check. Requires an LLM-enabled server. Default `false`.
`aiGoal` optional	string	Optional even when `aiMode` is on. A natural-language hint that narrows what counts as meaningful (e.g. "only when the price drops or it goes out of stock"). Omit it and the AI flags any meaningful change on its own.
`useBrowser` optional	boolean	Render with a headless browser (needed for JS-heavy pages). Default `false`. Forced `true` when `sessionId` is set.
`country` optional	string	Proxy country code. Default `"us"`. See Supported Countries.
`sessionId` optional	string	Saved browser session for monitoring logged-in pages.
`isActive` optional	boolean	Start active or paused. Default `true`.
`expiresAt` optional	string	End date — an ISO 8601 timestamp or `YYYY-MM-DD` date. After it passes, the monitor auto-pauses (`expired: true`) and can be resumed. Must be in the future. Null/omitted = no end date (runs until you pause it or run out of credits).
`alertWebhookUrl` optional	string	Webhook to POST each detected change to (HMAC-signed). See Alerts.
`alertEmails` optional	string	Comma-separated email recipients. Requires email alerts to be enabled on the server.

Response

201 Created

Returns the full Monitor object. When you set alertWebhookUrl, the response includes a freshly generated alertWebhookSecret — store it now, it's what you use to verify webhook signatures.

{
  "id": "b1e7c2a4-…",
  "url": "https://example.com/product/123",
  "watchMode": "specific_data",
  "intervalMinutes": 60,
  "isActive": true,
  "aiMode": true,
  "creditCostPerRun": 4,
  "nextRunAt": "2026-01-01T12:00:00Z",
  "alertWebhookUrl": "https://your-app.com/hooks/anakin",
  "alertWebhookSecret": "whsec_9f2c…",
  "createdAt": "2026-01-01T11:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-01-01T11:00:00Z"
}

The first check runs on the next scheduler tick (usually within a minute). Poll GET /v1/monitors/{id} for lastCheckedAt, or list changes.

Errors

Status	`error`	When
`400`	`invalid_request`	Missing/invalid `url`, `intervalMinutes < 15`, bad `watchMode`/`watchFormat`, missing `outputSchema` for `specific_data`, or malformed emails.
`402`	`monitor_limit_reached`	You're at your plan's active-monitor cap (Free 5 / Pro 20 / Scale 100).

Code Examples

curl -X POST https://api.anakin.io/v1/monitors \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/product/123",
    "watchMode": "specific_data",
    "outputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "price": { "type": "number" } }, "required": ["price"] },
    "intervalMinutes": 60,
    "alertWebhookUrl": "https://your-app.com/hooks/anakin"
  }'

import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://api.anakin.io/v1/monitors",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key"},
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com/product/123",
        "watchMode": "specific_data",
        "outputSchema": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {"price": {"type": "number"}},
            "required": ["price"],
        },
        "intervalMinutes": 60,
        "alertWebhookUrl": "https://your-app.com/hooks/anakin",
    },
)
monitor = res.json()
print("Created", monitor["id"], "— save secret:", monitor.get("alertWebhookSecret"))

const res = await fetch("https://api.anakin.io/v1/monitors", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "X-API-Key": "your_api_key", "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: "https://example.com/product/123",
    watchMode: "specific_data",
    outputSchema: { type: "object", properties: { price: { type: "number" } }, required: ["price"] },
    intervalMinutes: 60,
    alertWebhookUrl: "https://your-app.com/hooks/anakin",
  }),
});
const monitor = await res.json();
console.log("Created", monitor.id, "— save secret:", monitor.alertWebhookSecret);