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monitor-api

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Monitor API Complete Reference

Track web changes continuously with scheduled queries and webhook notifications

The Monitor API lets you continuously track the web for changes relevant to a query, on a schedule you control. Create a monitor with a natural-language query, choose a cadence (hourly, daily, weekly), and receive webhook notifications when changes are detected.

Table of Contents

Features and Use Cases

The Monitor API automates continuous research for any topic, including companies, products, or regulatory areas—without building complicated web monitoring infrastructure. Define a query once along with the desired schedule, and the service will detect relevant changes and deliver concise updates (with source links) to your systems via webhooks.

Current Features:

  • Scheduling: Set update cadence to Hourly, Daily, or Weekly
  • Webhooks: Receive updates when events are detected or when monitors finish a scheduled run
  • Events history: Retrieve updates from recent runs or via a lookback window (e.g., 10d)
  • Lifecycle management: Update cadence, webhook, or metadata; delete to stop future runs
  • Structured outputs: Return events as JSON conforming to your schema

Common Use Cases:

Use Case Example Query
News tracking "What is the latest AI funding news?"
Brand mentions "Let me know when someone mentions Parallel Web Systems on the web"
Product announcements "Alert me when Apple announces new MacBook models"
Regulatory updates "Notify me of any new FDA guidance on AI in medical devices"
Price monitoring "Let me know when the price for AirPods drops below $150"
Stock availability "Alert me when the PS5 Pro is back in stock at Best Buy"
Content updates "Notify me when the React documentation is updated"
Policy changes "Track changes to OpenAI's terms of service"

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Generate your API key on Platform, then set it in your shell:

export PARALLEL_API_KEY="PARALLEL_API_KEY"

Quick Example

Create a monitor that gathers daily AI news:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY" \
  --data '{
    "query": "Extract recent news about quantum in AI",
    "cadence": "daily",
    "webhook": {
      "url": "https://example.com/webhook",
      "event_types": ["monitor.event.detected"]
    },
    "metadata": { "key": "value" }
  }'

Response:

{
  "monitor_id": "monitor_b0079f70195e4258a3b982c1b6d8bd3a",
  "query": "Extract recent news about quantum in AI",
  "status": "active",
  "cadence": "daily",
  "metadata": { "key": "value" },
  "webhook": {
    "url": "https://example.com/webhook",
    "event_types": ["monitor.event.detected"]
  },
  "created_at": "2025-04-23T20:21:48.037943Z"
}

Creating Monitors

POST /v1alpha/monitors

Creates a monitor that periodically runs the specified query over the web at the specified cadence (hourly, daily, or weekly). The monitor runs once at creation and then continues according to the specified frequency.

Request Body:

Parameter Type Required Description
query string Yes Search query to monitor for material changes.
cadence string Yes Cadence of the monitor. One of: daily, weekly, hourly
webhook object | null No Webhook to receive notifications about the monitor's execution.
metadata object | null No User-provided metadata stored with the monitor. This field is returned in webhook notifications and GET requests, enabling you to map responses to corresponding objects in your application. For example, if you are building a Slackbot that monitors changes, you could store the Slack thread ID here.
output_schema object | null No Output schema for the monitor event. See Structured Outputs.

Webhook Object:

Parameter Type Required Description
url string Yes URL for the webhook.
event_types array[string] No Event types to send webhook notifications for. See Webhooks for event types.

Response:

Returns a MonitorResponse object with status code 201.

Example Request:

from httpx import Response
from parallel import Parallel

client = Parallel(api_key="PARALLEL_API_KEY")

res = client.post(
  "/v1alpha/monitors",
  cast_to=Response,
  body={
    "query": "Extract recent news about AI",
    "cadence": "daily",
    "webhook": {
      "url": "https://example.com/webhook",
      "event_types": ["monitor.event.detected"],
    },
    "metadata": {"key": "value"},
  },
).json()

print(res["monitor_id"])

import Parallel from "parallel-web";

const client = new Parallel({ apiKey: process.env.PARALLEL_API_KEY! });

async function create_monitor() {
  const monitor = await client.post("/v1alpha/monitors", {
    body: {
      query: "Extract recent news about AI",
      cadence: "daily",
      webhook: {
        url: "https://example.com/webhook",
        event_types: ["monitor.event.detected"],
      },
      metadata: { key: "value" },
    },
  });
  console.log(monitor.monitor_id);
}

create_monitor();

Events and Event Groups

Monitors produce a stream of events each time they run. These events capture:

  • new results detected by your query (events)
  • run completions
  • errors (if a run fails)

Related events are grouped by an event_group_id so you can fetch the full set of results that belong to the same discovery.

Event Groups

Event groups collect related results under a single event_group_id. When a monitor detects new results, it creates an event group. Subsequent runs can add additional events to the same group if they're related to the same discovery.

Use event groups to present the full context of a discovery (multiple sources, follow-up updates) as one unit.

Event Types

Besides events with new results, monitors emit:

  • Event (type: "event"): indicates a material change was detected
  • Completion (type: "completion"): indicates a run finished successfully without detected events
  • Error (type: "error"): indicates a run failed

GET /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}/event_groups/{event_group_id}

Retrieves all events for a specific event group.

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
monitor_id string Yes ID of the monitor
event_group_id string Yes ID of the event group

Example Request:

from httpx import Response
from parallel import Parallel

client = Parallel(api_key="PARALLEL_API_KEY")

group = client.get(
  f"/v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}/event_groups/{event_group_id}",
  cast_to=Response,
).json()

print(group["events"])

import Parallel from "parallel-web";

const client = new Parallel({ apiKey: process.env.PARALLEL_API_KEY! });

async function getEventGroup(monitorId: string, eventGroupId: string) {
  const res = (await client.get(
    `/v1alpha/monitors/${monitorId}/event_groups/${eventGroupId}`,
  )) as any;
  console.log(res.events);
}

getEventGroup();

Response:

{
  "events": [
    {
      "type": "event",
      "event_group_id": "mevtgrp_b0079f70195e4258eab1e7284340f1a9ec3a8033ed236a24",
      "output": "New product launch announced",
      "event_date": "2025-01-15",
      "source_urls": ["https://example.com/news"],
      "result": {
        "type": "text",
        "content": "New product launch announced"
      }
    }
  ]
}

GET /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}/events

Retrieves events from the monitor, including events with errors and material changes. The endpoint checks up to the specified lookback period or the previous 300 event groups, whichever is less.

Events will be returned in reverse chronological order, with the most recent event groups first. All events from an event group will be flattened out into individual entries in the list.

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
monitor_id string Yes ID of the monitor

Query Parameters:

Parameter Type Default Description
lookback_period string 10d Lookback period to fetch events from. Sample values: 10d, 1w. A minimum of 1 day is supported with one day increments. Use d for days, w for weeks.

Example Request:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>/events?lookback_period=10d" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

Response:

{
  "events": [
    {
      "type": "event",
      "event_group_id": "mevtgrp_b0079f70195e4258eab1e7284340f1a9ec3a8033ed236a24",
      "output": "New product launch announced",
      "event_date": "2025-01-15",
      "source_urls": ["https://example.com/news"],
      "result": {
        "type": "text",
        "content": "New product launch announced"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "completion",
      "monitor_ts": "completed_2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    },
    {
      "type": "error",
      "error": "Error occurred while processing the event",
      "id": "error_2025-01-15T10:30:00Z",
      "date": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Accessing Events

You can receive events via webhooks (recommended) or retrieve them via endpoints.

  • Webhooks (recommended): lowest latency, push-based delivery. Subscribe to monitor.event.detected, monitor.execution.completed, and monitor.execution.failed. See Webhooks for more details.

  • Endpoints (for history/backfill):

    • GET /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}/events — list events for a monitor in reverse chronological order (up to recent ~300 runs). This flattens out events, meaning that multiple events from the same event group will be listed as different events.
    • GET /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}/event_groups/{event_group_id} - list all events given an event_group_id.

Webhooks

  • Recording your webhook secret
  • Verifying HMAC signatures
  • Security best practices
  • Retry policies

This guide focuses on Monitor-specific webhook events and payloads.

Webhooks allow you to receive real-time notifications when a Monitor execution completes, fails, or when material events are detected, eliminating the need for polling. This is especially useful for scheduled monitors that run at long gaps (hourly, daily, or weekly) and notify your systems only when relevant changes occur.

Setup

To register a webhook for a Monitor, include a webhook parameter when creating the monitor:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY" \
  --data '{
    "query": "Extract recent news about AI",
    "cadence": "daily",
    "webhook": {
      "url": "https://your-domain.com/webhooks/monitor",
      "event_types": [
        "monitor.event.detected",
        "monitor.execution.completed",
        "monitor.execution.failed"
      ]
    },
    "metadata": { "team": "research" }
  }'

Webhook Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
url string Yes Your webhook endpoint URL. Can be any domain you control.
event_types array[string] Yes Event types to subscribe to. See Event Types below.

Event Types

Monitors support the following webhook event types:

Event Type Description
monitor.event.detected Emitted when a run detects one or more material events.
monitor.execution.completed Emitted when a Monitor run completes successfully (without detected events).
monitor.execution.failed Emitted when a Monitor run fails due to an error.

You can subscribe to any combination of these event types in your webhook configuration. Note that monitor.event.detected and monitor.execution.completed are mutually distinct and correspond to different runs.

Webhook Payload Structure

For Monitor webhooks, the data object contains:

  • monitor_id: The unique ID of the Monitor
  • event: The event record for this run
  • metadata: User-provided metadata from the Monitor (if any)
{
  "type": "monitor.execution.completed",
  "timestamp": "2025-10-27T14:56:05.619331Z",
  "data": {
    "monitor_id": "monitor_0c9d7f7d5a7841a0b6c269b2b9b1e6aa",
    "event": {
      "type": "completion",
      "monitor_ts": "completed_2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    },
    "metadata": { "team": "research" }
  }
}

{
  "type": "monitor.execution.failed",
  "timestamp": "2025-10-27T14:57:30.789012Z",
  "data": {
    "monitor_id": "monitor_0c9d7f7d5a7841a0b6c269b2b9b1e6aa",
    "event": {
      "type": "error",
      "error": "Error occurred while processing the event",
      "id": "error_2025-01-15T10:30:00Z",
      "date": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    },
    "metadata": { "team": "research" }
  }
}

When you receive a webhook with an event_group_id (for a detected change), fetch the full set of related events using the event group endpoint described above.

Security & Verification

For HMAC signature verification and language-specific examples, see the Webhook Setup Guide - Security & Verification.

Retry Policy

See Webhook Setup Guide - Retry Policy for delivery retries and backoff details.

Structured Outputs

Structured outputs enable you to define a JSON schema for monitor events. Each detected event conforms to the specified schema, returning data in a consistent, machine-readable format suitable for downstream processing in databases, analytics pipelines, or automation workflows.

Defining an Output Schema

Include an output_schema field when creating a monitor:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY" \
  --data '{
    "query": "monitor ai news",
    "cadence": "daily",
    "output_schema": {
      "type": "json",
      "json_schema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "company_name": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Name of the company the news is about, NA if not company-specific"
          },
          "sentiment": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Sentiment of the news: positive or negative"
          },
          "description": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Brief description of the news"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }'

Retrieving Structured Events

Events from monitors configured with structured outputs include a result field containing the parsed JSON object:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>/events" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

Response:

{
  "events": [
    {
      "type": "event",
      "event_group_id": "mevtgrp_f9727e22dd4a42ba5e7fdcaa36b2b8ea2ef7c11f15fb4061",
      "event_date": "2025-12-02",
      "source_urls": [
        "https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/02/youtube-ai-biometric-data-creator-deepfake.html"
      ],
      "result": {
        "type": "json",
        "content": {
          "company_name": "YouTube/Google",
          "sentiment": "negative",
          "description": "YouTube expanded a likeness detection deepfake tracking tool; experts warn the sign-up requires government ID and a biometric video."
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "event",
      "event_group_id": "mevtgrp_f9727e22dd4a42ba5e7fdcaa36b2b8ea2ef7c11f15fb4061",
      "event_date": "2025-12-02",
      "source_urls": [
        "https://fox59.com/business/press-releases/globenewswire/9595236/kloudfuse-launches-kloudfuse-3-5"
      ],
      "result": {
        "type": "json",
        "content": {
          "company_name": "Kloudfuse",
          "sentiment": "positive",
          "description": "Kloudfuse announced version 3.5 with AI-native observability features including LLM observability integrated into APM."
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Best Practices for Structured Outputs

  • Include property descriptions: Provide clear description fields for each property to improve extraction accuracy
  • Use primitive types: Limit properties to string and enum types for reliable parsing
  • Maintain flat schemas: Use 3–5 properties with a single-level object structure
  • Define edge case handling: Specify how missing or inapplicable values should be represented

Testing with Simulate Event

The simulate event endpoint allows you to test your webhook integration without waiting for a scheduled monitor run.

POST /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}/simulate_event

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
monitor_id string Yes ID of the monitor

Query Parameters:

Parameter Type Default Description
event_type string monitor.event.detected Event type to simulate. One of: monitor.event.detected, monitor.execution.completed, monitor.execution.failed

Response:

Returns 204 No Content on success.

Errors:

Status Description
400 Webhook not configured for this monitor
404 Monitor not found

Example:

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>/simulate_event?event_type=monitor.event.detected" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

Test Event Groups

When you simulate a monitor.event.detected event, the webhook payload includes a test event_group_id. You can retrieve this test event group using the standard endpoint:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>/event_groups/<test_event_group_id>" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

Response:

{
  "events": [
    {
      "type": "event",
      "event_group_id": "test_def",
      "output": "",
      "event_date": "2025-12-05",
      "source_urls": ["https://test.example.com"],
      "result": {
        "type": "json",
        "content": {
          "sentiment": "",
          "stock_ticker_symbol": "",
          "description": ""
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Test event group IDs return dummy event data, allowing you to verify your full webhook processing pipeline—from receiving the webhook to fetching event details.

Managing Monitors

GET /v1alpha/monitors

List all monitors for your account.

Example:

curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

GET /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}

Retrieve a specific monitor by ID.

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
monitor_id string Yes ID of the monitor

Example:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

PATCH /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}

Update a monitor's configuration. You can update the cadence, webhook, and metadata.

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
monitor_id string Yes ID of the monitor

Request Body:

Parameter Type Required Description
cadence string No Cadence of the monitor: daily, weekly, hourly
webhook object | null No Webhook configuration
metadata object | null No User-provided metadata

Example:

curl --request PATCH \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY" \
  --data '{
    "cadence": "weekly",
    "metadata": { "updated": "true" }
  }'

DELETE /v1alpha/monitors/{monitor_id}

Delete a monitor, stopping all future executions. Deleted monitors can no longer be updated or retrieved.

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
monitor_id string Yes ID of the monitor

Example:

curl --request DELETE \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"

Slack Integration

The Parallel Slack app brings Monitor directly into your Slack workspace. Create monitors with slash commands and receive updates in dedicated threads.

Installation

  1. Go to platform.parallel.ai and navigate to the Integrations section
  2. Click Add to Slack to begin the OAuth flow
  3. Authorize the Parallel app in your workspace
  4. Invite the bot to any channel where you want to use monitoring: /invite @Parallel

Commands

/monitor

Create a daily monitor:

/monitor latest AI research papers

The bot posts your query and replies in a thread when changes are detected.

/hourly

Create an hourly monitor for fast-moving topics:

/hourly breaking news about OpenAI

/help

View available commands:

/help

Cancel a Monitor

Reply to the monitoring thread with:

cancelmonitor

The bot will cancel the monitor and confirm in the thread.

Pricing

Monitors created via Slack use the same pricing as the Monitor API. See Pricing for details.

Best Practices

Scope Your Query

Clear queries with explicit instructions lead to higher-quality event detection. Monitor works best with natural language queries that clearly describe what you're looking for.

❌ Bad Query ✅ Good Query
"Parallel OR Parallel Web Systems OR Parallel AI AND Funding OR Launch OR Announcement" "Parallel Web Systems (parallel.ai) launch or funding updates"

Unlike a search engine, the query doesn't need to be keyword-heavy—it needs to be intent-heavy.

Choose the Right Cadence

  • Use hourly for fast-moving topics
  • Use daily for most news
  • Use weekly for slower changes

Use for Current Events, Not Historical Research

Don't use for historical research: Monitor is designed to track new updates as they happen, not to retrieve past news. Use Deep Research for historical queries.

❌ Bad Query ✅ Good Query
"Find all AI funding news from the last 2 years" "AI startup funding announcements"

Don't Include Dates

Monitor automatically tracks updates from when it's created. Adding specific dates to your query is unnecessary and can cause confusion.

❌ Bad Query ✅ Good Query
"Tesla news after December 12, 2025" "Tesla news and announcements"

Prefer Webhooks

Use webhooks to avoid unnecessary polling and reduce latency to updates. This is especially important for hourly and daily monitors.

Manage Lifecycle

Cancel monitors you no longer need to reduce your usage bills.

Lifecycle

The Monitor API follows a straightforward lifecycle:

  1. Create: Define your query, cadence, and optional webhook and metadata
  2. Update: Change cadence, webhook, or metadata
  3. Delete: Delete a monitor and stop future executions

At any point, you can retrieve the list of events for a monitor or events within a specific event group.

Rate Limits

See Rate Limits for default quotas and how to request higher limits.

Pricing

To find navigation and other pages in this documentation, fetch the llms.txt file at: https://docs.parallel.ai/llms.txt

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