| name | parallel-monitor |
| description | 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 on the web changes — e.g., 'Track price changes for iPhone 16', 'Alert me when Tesla files a new 8-K', 'Monitor competitor pricing pages weekly'. Also use to list, inspect, update, or delete existing monitors. |
| compatibility | Requires parallel-cli >= 0.3.0 and internet access. |
| allowed-tools | Bash(parallel-cli:*) |
| metadata | {"author":"parallel"} |
Web Monitor
Action: $ARGUMENTS
Requires parallel-cli ≥ 0.3.0 (the monitor command was added in 0.3.0). If parallel-cli monitor errors with no such command or similar, tell the user to run parallel-cli update (or pipx upgrade parallel-web-tools if installed via pipx), 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 deleted and can optionally fire a webhook on each event.
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 / query / webhook for X" | update |
| "Test the webhook" / "Fire a test event" | simulate (requires a webhook on the monitor) |
| "Show me the full payload for event group X" | event-group |
| "Stop / delete monitor X" | delete (always confirm before deleting) |
Create a monitor
parallel-cli monitor create "<query>" --cadence daily --json
Cadence options: hourly, daily (default), weekly, every_two_weeks. Match cadence to how often the source actually changes — hourly for prices/news, weekly for filings/staffing.
Optional flags:
--webhook https://example.com/hook — POST events to a URL as they happen--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 cadence (so they know when to expect first event)
- That events accumulate server-side — they can run
parallel-cli monitor events $MONITOR_ID later to see what changed
If they configured a webhook, suggest testing it:
parallel-cli monitor simulate "$MONITOR_ID"
simulate requires a webhook to be configured on the monitor. Without one it errors with Webhook not configured for this monitor — do not run it on monitors created without --webhook.
List monitors
parallel-cli monitor list -n 10 --json
Default to -n 10 — accounts with many historical monitors can return megabytes of JSON otherwise. Raise the limit only if the user explicitly asks for "all" or a larger set. Present as a table: ID, query (truncated), cadence, created.
Note: monitor list is not guaranteed to be sorted newest-first, so a monitor you just created may not appear in the first page of results. 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" --lookback 10d --json
Lookback format: Nd (days) or Nw (weeks). Default 10d.
For deeper detail on a specific event group:
parallel-cli monitor event-group "$MONITOR_ID" "$EVENT_GROUP_ID" --json
Summarize for the user: count of events in the period, then a bulleted list of what changed with timestamps. Cite source URLs from the event payload.
Get / update / delete
parallel-cli monitor get "$MONITOR_ID" --json
parallel-cli monitor update "$MONITOR_ID" --cadence weekly --json
parallel-cli monitor delete "$MONITOR_ID" --json
Always confirm before deleting — deletion is permanent.
If the parallel-cli binary is not installed
If the shell reports command not found: parallel-cli (i.e. the binary itself is missing — distinct from a No such command error from a stale CLI, which the in-body guidance above covers), stop immediately. Do NOT search the web yourself, do NOT use any built-in search tools, and do NOT try to answer the query from your own knowledge. Instead, tell the user:
parallel-cli is not installed- Run
/parallel-setup to install it
- Then retry their request
