monitoring

name	monitoring
description	Periodic page monitoring via Brijio: read authenticated pages on a schedule, extract specific data, compare to previous state, and notify on changes — designed for Hermes cron jobs.

Periodic Page Monitoring

Monitor authenticated web pages on a schedule by reading page data, extracting specific values, comparing to a known baseline, and reporting changes. This skill is designed to work with Hermes cron jobs for ongoing monitoring tasks.

When to Use

• Price monitoring on authenticated e-commerce sites
• Availability checks (stock, tickets, appointments)
• Content change alerts on dashboards or internal tools
• Status page monitoring behind authentication
• Any scenario where you need to check a page periodically and alert on changes

Cron Job Setup

Use the Hermes cronjob tool to set up a recurring monitoring task:

cronjob action=create \
  name="price-monitor-product-x" \
  schedule="every 2h" \
  prompt="Check the price of Product X on the authenticated page at https://shop.example.com/product-x. Use list_browsers to confirm connection, read_current_page to get the price, compare to the last known price stored in memory, and report if the price has changed."

Load the using-brijio and monitoring skills in the cron job so the agent knows how to use Brijio tools:

skills: ["using-brijio", "monitoring"]

Workflow

1. Check Connection

list_browsers → Confirm browser is connected

If no browser is connected, the cron job cannot proceed. Report this as an error — do not silently fail.

2. Read the Target Page

read_current_page(includeContent: true) → Full page context

If the page requires navigation from the current URL, use the navigation skill to reach the target page first.

3. Extract Target Data

From the page context, extract the specific data points you're monitoring:

Price monitoring:

Find the price element in forms/links/actions or content
Extract numeric value, currency, and any discount information

Availability monitoring:

Look for "In Stock", "Out of Stock", "Available", "Sold Out" text
Check for disabled "Add to Cart" actions
Check for "Coming Soon" or "Notify Me" links

Content change monitoring:

Extract specific sections of text (headings, table data, status indicators)
Compare structure and content to the previous reading

Status monitoring:

Check for status indicators (green/red icons, "Operational" / "Degraded" text)
Extract status text and component names

4. Compare to Baseline

Retrieve the last known state from memory:

memory action=read target="memory" → Get last known values

If this is the first run, store the current values and report "baseline established" — do not report a change yet.

Compare current values to stored values:

Match	Action
Same as baseline	No change — report "no change" and exit
Different from baseline	Report the change with old and new values
No previous baseline	Store current values, report "baseline established"

5. Report Changes

When a change is detected, report clearly:

🔔 **Price Change Detected**

**Product:** Premium Widget (SKU: PW-100)
**Previous price:** $49.99
**Current price:** $39.99
**Change:** -$10.00 (-20%)
**Page:** https://shop.example.com/product-x
**Checked at:** 2026-05-28 14:30 UTC

For availability changes:

🔔 **Availability Change**

**Product:** Concert Tickets - Section A
**Previous status:** Sold Out
**Current status:** Available (12 remaining)
**Page:** https://tickets.example.com/event/123
**Checked at:** 2026-05-28 14:30 UTC

6. Update Baseline

After reporting a change, update the stored baseline:

memory action=add target="memory"
  content="Product X price: $39.99 (as of 2026-05-28)"

This prevents reporting the same change repeatedly.

Monitoring Strategies

Simple Value Monitoring

Extract a single value (price, status, count) and compare to the previous value. Best for:

• Price changes
• Stock availability
• Status page updates

Structural Monitoring

Compare the page structure (forms, links, actions) to detect any changes. Best for:

• New features appearing on a page
• UI changes on internal tools
• New links or buttons added

Keyword Monitoring

Scan page content for specific keywords. Best for:

• Error messages ("maintenance", "degraded", "down")
• Feature announcements ("new", "beta", "launch")
• Policy changes ("updated terms", "effective date")

Scheduling Recommendations

Frequency	Use Case
Every 5 min	Critical status pages, high-value availability
Every 15 min	Stock alerts, limited-availability events
Every 1 hour	Price monitoring on stable e-commerce pages
Every 2-4 hours	Content change detection on dashboards
Daily	Low-priority status checks, policy page monitoring

Pitfalls

Authenticated Pages

Brijio monitors pages through the user's real browser session. The browser must be connected when the cron job runs. If the connection fails:

• Report the failure clearly
• Do not cache stale data as "unchanged"
• Suggest the user check their browser connection

Dynamic Content

Pages with live data (countdown timers, live feeds) will always show changes. Focus on specific data points rather than full-page comparison. Use the data-extraction skill for targeted extraction instead of comparing entire page snapshots.

Rate Limiting

Frequent page reads may trigger anti-bot protections. If you encounter rate-limit errors:

1. Reduce the monitoring frequency
2. Add a small delay between reads
3. Focus on the specific data, not the entire page

Session Expiration

Authenticated sessions expire. If read_current_page shows a login page instead of the expected content, the session has expired. Report this as "session expired" — do not attempt to log in automatically.

Element ID Changes

Element IDs change between page loads. Never store element IDs (e5, f2) as stable references — store the data values (text content, prices, labels) instead.

Multiple Checks in One Run

To monitor multiple pages in a single cron run:

1. Read Page A, extract data, compare to baseline A
2. Read Page B, extract data, compare to baseline B
3. Report all changes in a single summary message

This is more efficient than separate cron jobs for each page.