Skip to main content
Watch any public URL and get notified when something changes. Class seats, price drops, blog posts, API data — Sift checks on a schedule and texts you the moment your condition is met.
Free users get up to 3 active monitors. Premium users get unlimited monitors.

​
What You Can Ask

​
How Monitors Work

Every monitor has three parts:
  1. Target — The URL to watch (webpage, API endpoint, or RSS feed)
  2. Condition — What change to look for (text changes, contains a keyword, number threshold, new entries)
  3. Alert — Where to send the notification (iMessage, email, push)
Sift polls the URL on a schedule (as often as every minute) and evaluates your condition against the latest content.

​
Monitor Types

Webpage

Watch any public webpage. Optionally target a specific element with a CSS selector — like a seat count, price, or status field.

API

Poll a JSON API endpoint. Extract a specific value with a JSON path — like a price field, stock level, or status code.

RSS Feed

Watch an RSS or Atom feed for new entries. Get alerted when new posts, articles, or updates are published.

​
Conditions

​
Example Monitors

Type: Webpage · Condition: Contains “Open”Paste your university’s course registration page. Sift watches for open seats and texts you the moment one appears.
“Watch https://registrar.university.edu/course/CS301 for open seats”
Type: API · Condition: Number below thresholdTrack a product price via its API. Get alerted when it drops below your target.
“Alert me if this drops below $50”
Type: RSS · Condition: New entryFollow a professor’s blog, department news feed, or any RSS source. Sift texts you when new content is published.
“Watch this RSS feed and tell me when there’s a new post”
Type: API · Condition: JSON changesMonitor any public API endpoint for data changes — weather alerts, server status, sports scores, or anything with a JSON response.
“Tell me when this API response changes”
Type: Webpage · Condition: Text changesWatch a company’s careers page for new postings. Sift detects when the page content changes and alerts you.
“Watch this careers page and tell me when new jobs are posted”
Type: Webpage · Condition: Contains keywordWatch an event page, restaurant reservation system, or appointment scheduler for open slots.
“Watch this page for ‘available’ and text me when it shows up”

​
Creating a Monitor

Describe what you want to watch in natural language:

​
Managing Monitors

​
Delivery Channels

Monitor alerts can be delivered via:
  • iMessage — Fastest for time-sensitive alerts like seat openings
  • Email — Good for less urgent updates
  • Push notification — Quick mobile alerts

​
How It Differs from Automations

​
Polling & Limits

  • Minimum interval: 1 minute
  • Maximum interval: 24 hours
  • Default interval: 5 minutes
  • Rate limiting: Sift respects robots.txt and limits requests to one per domain every 5 seconds
  • Auto-disable: Monitors that fail 10 times in a row are automatically paused
  • Notification cooldown: 30 minutes between repeat alerts for the same monitor (configurable)

​
Tips

  • Use CSS selectors for precision — Instead of watching an entire page, target the specific element that matters (e.g., a seat count or price)
  • Start with longer intervals — 5-minute polling is fine for most use cases; save 1-minute polling for truly time-sensitive things
  • iMessage for urgency — Use iMessage delivery for monitors where speed matters (seat openings, price drops)
  • Set expiration dates — For temporary monitors (like class registration), set an expiry so they clean up automatically
  • Combine with automations — Use a monitor for external watching and an automation for internal follow-up actions