API Quick Start: Monitor Your First Page in 60 Seconds

Last updated: 6 May, 20264 min read

This guide walks you through creating your first monitor and webhook using the PageCrawl API. By the end, you will have a page being monitored with change notifications delivered to your endpoint.

API access requires a paid plan (Standard or above). Get your API token from Settings > API.

Step 1: Get Your API Token

Go to Settings > API > API Tokens and click Create Token. Copy the token immediately (it will not be shown again).

All API requests use this token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN

For the full API reference with all endpoints and schemas, visit pagecrawl.io/developers.

Step 2: Create a Monitor

The simplest way to start monitoring is the /api/track-simple endpoint. It only requires a URL.

curl

curl -X POST "https://pagecrawl.io/api/track-simple" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/pricing",
    "tracking_mode": "fullpage",
    "frequency": 60
  }'

Python

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://pagecrawl.io/api/track-simple",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"},
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com/pricing",
        "tracking_mode": "fullpage",
        "frequency": 60,
    },
)

page = response.json()
print(f"Monitoring: {page['name']} (ID: {page['id']})")

Node.js

const response = await fetch("https://pagecrawl.io/api/track-simple", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: "https://example.com/pricing",
    tracking_mode: "fullpage",
    frequency: 60,
  }),
});

const page = await response.json();
console.log(`Monitoring: ${page.name} (ID: ${page.id})`);

Tracking modes:

  • fullpage - all visible text (default)
  • content_only - text without navigation, headers, footers
  • reader - reader mode content only
  • price - auto-detect and track prices
  • specific_text - specific element (requires selector)
  • specific_number - numeric value from element (requires selector)

Frequency is in minutes. Use 1440 for daily, 60 for hourly, 15 for every 15 minutes (depends on your plan).

Step 3: Set Up a Webhook

Create a webhook to receive notifications when changes are detected.

curl

curl -X POST "https://pagecrawl.io/api/hooks" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "target_url": "https://your-server.com/webhook",
    "match_type": "all",
    "events": ["change_detected"]
  }'

Python

response = requests.post(
    "https://pagecrawl.io/api/hooks",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"},
    json={
        "target_url": "https://your-server.com/webhook",
        "match_type": "all",
        "events": ["change_detected"],
    },
)

hook = response.json()
print(f"Webhook created (ID: {hook['id']})")

Match types: all (every page), monitors (specific pages), tags (by tag), folders (by folder), domains (by domain).

Events: change_detected, error, price_change_detected.

Step 4: Handle Webhook Payloads

When a change is detected, PageCrawl POSTs a JSON payload to your webhook URL. Here is an example handler:

Python (Flask)

from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/webhook", methods=["POST"])
def handle_change():
    data = request.json

    print(f"Change detected: {data['title']}")
    print(f"New content: {data['contents']}")
    print(f"Difference: {data['human_difference']}")

    if data.get("ai_summary"):
        print(f"AI Summary: {data['ai_summary']}")

    return "", 200

Node.js (Express)

app.post("/webhook", (req, res) => {
  const data = req.body;

  console.log(`Change detected: ${data.title}`);
  console.log(`New content: ${data.contents}`);
  console.log(`Difference: ${data.human_difference}`);

  if (data.ai_summary) {
    console.log(`AI Summary: ${data.ai_summary}`);
  }

  res.sendStatus(200);
});

Key payload fields:

  • title - Page name
  • contents - Current value of the tracked element
  • difference - Text difference percentage (0-100)
  • human_difference - Human-readable change description
  • ai_summary - AI-generated plain-language summary of the change
  • ai_priority_score - 0-100 importance score
  • markdown_difference - Change diff in markdown format
  • page_screenshot_image - Signed URL to the page screenshot

You can customize which fields are included when creating the webhook via the payload_fields parameter.

Other Useful Endpoints

Endpoint Description
GET /api/pages List all monitored pages
GET /api/pages/{id} Get page details and latest values
PUT /api/pages/{id} Update page settings
DELETE /api/pages/{id} Delete a page
PUT /api/pages/{id}/check Trigger an immediate check
PUT /api/pages/{id}/status Enable or disable monitoring
GET /api/pages/{id}/history Get full check history
GET /api/pages/{id}/checks/{checkId}/diff.markdown Get text diff as markdown

Download the OpenAPI Spec

The full API specification is available as an OpenAPI 3.0 YAML file. Import it into Postman, Insomnia, or any API client:

https://pagecrawl.io/api/openapi.yaml

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