# API and Webhooks for Custom Integrations

Source: PageCrawl.io Help Center
URL: https://pagecrawl.io/help/features/article/api-webhooks-for-custom-integrations

---

PageCrawl provides three ways to integrate page monitoring into your own applications and workflows: a **REST API** to manage monitors programmatically, **webhooks** for real-time change notifications, and **RSS feeds** for lightweight consumption.

  [Image: Interactive API reference at pagecrawl.io/developers with endpoints, authentication, and copy-paste code examples]

  <strong>Note:</strong> API and webhooks are available on paid plans (Standard or above).

### Authentication

All API requests require a Bearer token. Go to **Settings > API > API Tokens** and click **Create Token**, then copy it immediately (it is not shown again).

  [Image: API Tokens card with the tokens table, Create Token button, and the Bearer authorization note]

Include the token in the `Authorization` header on every request:

```
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN
```

For the full reference with every endpoint, parameter, and response schema, see [pagecrawl.io/developers](/developers).

### Quick Start

#### Step 1: Create a monitor

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

```bash
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",
    "ai_page_focus": "Alert me if the price drops or the item goes out of stock; skip header, footer, and cookie-banner changes"
  }'
```

```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", "ai_page_focus": "Alert me if the price drops or the item goes out of stock; skip header, footer, and cookie-banner changes"},
)
page = response.json()
print(f"Monitoring: {page['name']} (ID: {page['id']})")
```

```javascript
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", ai_page_focus: "Alert me if the price drops or the item goes out of stock; skip header, footer, and cookie-banner changes" }),
});
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), `price` (auto-detect prices), `specific_text` (requires `selector`), `specific_number` (requires `selector`).

**`ai_page_focus`** (optional) is free text telling the AI what matters most on this page, for example `"Alert me if the price drops or the item goes out of stock; skip header, footer, and cookie-banner changes"`. It sharpens change summaries and priority scoring.

**Frequency:** an optional `frequency` field (in minutes) controls how often the page is checked: `1440` for daily, `60` for hourly, `15` for every 15 minutes (depends on your plan). When omitted, it defaults to daily.

#### Step 2: Set up a webhook

```bash
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"]
  }'
```

**Match types:** `all` (every page), `monitors`, `tags`, `folders`, `domains`.
**Events:** `change_detected`, `error`, `price_change_detected`.

#### Step 3: Handle webhook payloads

When a change is detected, PageCrawl POSTs a JSON payload to your endpoint.

```python
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"Difference: {data['human_difference']}")
    if data.get("ai_summary"):
        print(f"AI Summary: {data['ai_summary']}")
    return "", 200
```

**Key payload fields:** `title`, `contents` (current value), `difference` (0-100), `human_difference`, `ai_summary`, `ai_priority_score`, `markdown_difference`, `page_screenshot_image`.

### API Endpoints

| Method | Endpoint | Description |
|--------|----------|-------------|
| `GET` | `/api/pages` | List all monitored pages |
| `POST` | `/api/pages` | Create a new monitored page |
| `GET` | `/api/pages/{slug}` | Get page details and latest values |
| `PUT` | `/api/pages/{id}` | Update page settings |
| `DELETE` | `/api/pages/{id}` | Delete a monitored page |
| `PUT` | `/api/pages/{id}/check` | Trigger an immediate check |
| `PUT` | `/api/pages/{id}/status` | Enable or disable a page |
| `GET` | `/api/pages/{id}/history` | Get check history for a page |
| `GET` | `/api/pages/{id}/checks/{checkId}/diff.markdown` | Get a text diff as markdown |

For the complete endpoint list with parameters and schemas, see [pagecrawl.io/developers](/developers).

### Webhooks

Webhooks send HTTP POST requests with a JSON body to your endpoint whenever a page change is detected or an error occurs. Configure them in **Settings** > **Webhooks**.

| Setting | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| **Target URL** | The HTTP endpoint that receives the POST request |
| **Event triggers** | Change detected, error, or both |
| **Page filter** | Limit to specific pages, tags, folders, or a domain, or fire for all pages |
| **Payload fields** | Select which fields to include (all by default) |

Available payload fields include page ID, title, change summary, diff data (markdown and HTML), screenshots, AI summary, AI priority score, and per-element values. See the [Webhook Integration guide](/help/integrations/article/webhook-integration.md) for the full field reference and example payloads.

**Reliable delivery (automatic retries):** If your endpoint is briefly unreachable, for example your server was offline for a few minutes or returned a temporary error, PageCrawl automatically retries the webhook with a backoff delay rather than dropping the event. This means a short outage on your side does not cost you the change data: once your server is back online, the queued events are delivered. Return a `2xx` status code to acknowledge receipt; any other response (or a timeout) is treated as a failure and scheduled for retry.

### RSS Feeds

Prefer to consume changes in an RSS reader or automation tool? PageCrawl can generate an Atom feed of detected changes scoped to all pages, tags, folders, a domain, or specific monitors. See the [RSS Feeds guide](/help/features/article/page-monitoring-rss-feeds.md) for setup.

### Download the OpenAPI Spec

The full specification is available as an OpenAPI 3.0 file you can import into Postman, Insomnia, or any API client:

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

### Common Use Cases

- **Custom dashboards** - Pull change data into your own monitoring dashboard via API
- **Automation workflows** - Trigger actions in n8n, Make, Zapier, or custom scripts via webhooks
- **Database logging** - Store all detected changes in your own database
- **Alerting systems** - Forward high-priority changes to PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or similar

### Related Articles

- [Full API Reference](/developers) - Interactive OpenAPI reference with every endpoint and schema
- [Webhook Integration](/help/integrations/article/webhook-integration.md) - Detailed webhook setup, payload reference, and testing
- [Advanced Integrations](/help/tutorials/article/reference-implementations.md) - Copy-paste polling and webhook code in Python, Node.js, and PHP
- [Zapier Integration](/help/integrations/article/pagecrawl-zapier-integration.md) - Connect PageCrawl to 5,000+ apps
- [n8n Integration](/help/integrations/article/pagecrawl-n8n-integration.md) - Open-source workflow automation
- [RSS Feeds](/help/features/article/page-monitoring-rss-feeds.md) - Subscribe to changes via RSS

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