parallel-monitor

by parallel-web

Continuously track the web for changes on a recurring cadence. Use when the user asks to 'monitor', 'track changes to', 'watch', or 'alert me when' something…

npx skills add https://github.com/parallel-web/parallel-agent-skills --skill parallel-monitor

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Web Monitor

Action: $ARGUMENTS

Requires parallel-cli ≥ 0.4.0 for the GA Monitor commands. If a Monitor command or option is missing, tell the user to update through their installation method (see https://docs.parallel.ai/integrations/cli), then retry.

What this skill does

Monitors are long-running, server-side jobs that re-check the web on a cadence and emit events when something changes. Unlike search/research/findall (one-shot lookups), monitors persist until cancelled and can optionally deliver detected events through a webhook.

Decide the action

Parse the user's request and pick one:

Intent	Action
"Track / watch / monitor / alert me when X"	create
"What am I monitoring?" / "List monitors"	list
"What changed?" / "Show me events for monitor X"	events
"Show monitor X" / "Get details for X"	get
"Change cadence / webhook for X"	update
"Check monitor X now" / "Run it now"	trigger
"Show me the full payload for event group X"	events with `--event-group-id`
"Stop / delete monitor X"	cancel (always confirm before cancelling)

Create a monitor

parallel-cli monitor create "<query>" --frequency 1d --json

Frequency accepts <n><unit> with h, d, or w (for example 1h, 1d, or 1w). The aliases hourly, daily, weekly, and every_two_weeks are also accepted. Match cadence to how often the source actually changes — hourly for prices/news, weekly for filings/staffing.

Optional flags:

--webhook https://example.com/hook — deliver detected events to a URL
--metadata '{"team":"competitive-intel"}' — attach JSON metadata for your own bookkeeping
--output-schema '<json>' — structure the event payload (advanced)

Parse the JSON to extract the monitor_id. Tell the user:

The monitor has been created with its ID
The frequency (so they know how often the monitor checks)
That recent events are available server-side — they can run parallel-cli monitor events $MONITOR_ID later to see what changed

List monitors

parallel-cli monitor list -n 10 --json

Default to -n 10 for concise output. list returns active monitors only by default; add --status active --status cancelled when the user asks to include cancelled monitors. Raise the limit only for a larger set. Present as a table: ID, query or Task Run (truncated), frequency, created.

Note: monitor list is sorted newest-first. If a user is verifying creation, prefer monitor get $MONITOR_ID (using the ID returned by create) over scanning the list.

View events for a monitor

parallel-cli monitor events "$MONITOR_ID" --json

Events are returned newest-first. If the response contains next_cursor, pass it with --cursor to retrieve another page.

For deeper detail on a specific event group:

parallel-cli monitor events "$MONITOR_ID" --event-group-id "$EVENT_GROUP_ID" --json

Summarize for the user: count of events, then a bulleted list of what changed with dates or timestamps. Cite source URLs from the event payload.

Get / update / trigger / cancel

parallel-cli monitor get "$MONITOR_ID" --json
parallel-cli monitor update "$MONITOR_ID" --frequency 1w --json
parallel-cli monitor trigger "$MONITOR_ID" --json
parallel-cli monitor cancel "$MONITOR_ID" --json

The current CLI does not expose query updates; create a new monitor to change the query.

trigger enqueues a real off-schedule run without changing the regular schedule. It is not a synthetic webhook test, and it emits an event only if the run detects a material change.

Always confirm before cancelling — cancellation is permanent.

Setup

Requires parallel-cli (installed and authenticated). If parallel-cli --version fails, or if a later command fails with an authentication error, tell the user to see https://docs.parallel.ai/integrations/cli and stop.