Smart Web Change Monitoring — User Guide
v1.7.0Get your first monitor running in under 60 seconds.
Open the webpage containing the element you want to monitor (e.g., a product price, stock status, or news headline).
Click the WebSense AI icon 🔍 in your browser toolbar to open the popup panel.
A selection bar will appear at the top of the page. The page enters element selection mode.
Hover over elements — they'll highlight in blue. Click to select. A confirmation toast will appear at the bottom-right. You can continue selecting more elements or click "✓ Done" / press Esc to exit.
The extension will check your selected element at the configured interval and notify you when meaningful changes are detected.
Managing and interacting with your monitors.
The main panel shows all your monitors. Each card displays the monitor name, URL, status (active / paused), last check time, and change count.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Check Now | Click the 🔄 button on a monitor card to trigger an immediate check. A page toast shows the result. |
| View Changes | Click the monitor name or change count to see the full change history with before/after comparison and AI summaries. |
| Edit Monitor | Click the ✏️ (Edit) button to change the name, check interval, or view the CSS selector and page type. |
| Pause / Resume | Click the ⏸ button to pause a monitor. Click again to resume. Paused monitors skip all scheduled checks. |
| Delete Monitor | Click the 🗑 button. A confirmation dialog will appear before deletion. This also removes the change history. |
In the edit view, you can customize:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A human-readable label for the monitor (auto-generated on creation, editable anytime). |
| Check Interval | Override the global interval for this specific monitor. Options range from 5 min (Pro) to 24 hours. Select "Use global setting" to follow the default. |
| Page Type | Shows whether the page is Static (fast HTML fetch) or Dynamic (background tab rendering). Auto-detected; cannot be changed manually. |
| CSS Selector | The CSS selector used to locate the monitored element. Auto-generated during selection; read-only. |
Each change entry shows the timestamp, AI-generated summary, change type badge (price / content / status), magnitude (minor / moderate / major), and the full before/after text content.
When a meaningful change is detected, the extension icon shows a red badge with the unread count. Opening the popup clears the badge. Desktop notifications appear in real time if enabled.
Configure global behaviors, API keys, and notification channels.
Sets the baseline check frequency for all monitors that haven't overridden the interval. Free plan minimum is 60 minutes; Pro allows down to 5 minutes. Options: 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours.
Without a key, you get 100 free AI-powered change analyses per month using a built-in quota. Paste your own sk-... key from platform.openai.com for unlimited analyses. The key is stored locally in the extension and never sent anywhere except OpenAI.
A progress bar showing how many of your 100 free AI analyses have been used this month. Resets on the 1st of each month. Displays "unlimited" if an API key is set.
Toggle Chrome desktop push notifications on or off. When enabled, each meaningful change triggers a system-level notification. Click the notification to jump to the monitored page.
Send change alerts to external platforms. Select a platform (Slack, Discord, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, or Custom), paste the webhook URL, and click "Test Webhook" to verify. See the Webhook Setup section below for detailed per-platform instructions.
Email alerts are planned for a future release. In the meantime, use Webhook notifications to push alerts to your preferred channel.
Step-by-step instructions for each supported platform.
Go to api.slack.com/apps → Click "Create New App" → Choose "From scratch" → Name it (e.g., "WebSense AI") and select your workspace.
In the app settings sidebar, click "Incoming Webhooks" → Toggle it ON.
Scroll down and click "Add New Webhook to Workspace" → Select the channel where you want to receive alerts → Click "Allow".
You'll see a URL like:
Paste this URL into WebSense AI Settings → Webhook URL, select "Slack" as the platform, and click "Test Webhook".
Right-click your server name → "Server Settings" (you need Manage Webhooks permission).
In the sidebar, click "Integrations" → Click "Webhooks".
Click "New Webhook" → Name it (e.g., "WebSense AI") → Select the target channel from the dropdown → Optionally upload an avatar.
Click "Copy Webhook URL". The URL looks like:
Paste this URL into WebSense AI Settings → Webhook URL, select "Discord", and test.
Open the group chat where you want to receive alerts. Click the group settings icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner.
Click "Smart Assistant" (智能群助手) → "Add Robot" (添加机器人) → Select "Custom (via Webhook)".
Name the robot (e.g., "WebSense AI"). Under security settings, you may choose "Custom Keywords" and add a keyword like "WebSense" or "Change Detected". Click "Finish".
The URL looks like:
Paste into WebSense AI Settings, select "DingTalk", and test.
Open the group chat. Click the group name at the top to enter group settings.
Click "Bots" (群机器人) → "Add Bot" (添加机器人) → Select "Custom Bot" (自定义机器人).
Enter a name (e.g., "WebSense AI") and an optional description. You can optionally enable Signature Verification for added security.
The URL looks like:
Paste into WebSense AI Settings, select "Feishu", and test.
Open the group chat where you want alerts. Click the "..." menu in the top-right corner.
Click "Add Group Bot" (添加群机器人) → "Create a New Bot" (新建机器人).
Enter the bot name (e.g., "WebSense AI"). After creation, the webhook URL is displayed:
Paste into WebSense AI Settings, select "WeCom", and test.
For automation platforms like n8n, Make (Integromat), Zapier, IFTTT, or your own server, select "Custom". WebSense AI will send a POST request with Content-Type: application/json.
Payload format:
{
"event": "change_detected",
"timestamp": "2025-01-15T08:30:00.000Z",
"monitor": {
"name": "Product Price",
"url": "https://example.com/product"
},
"change": {
"summary": "Price dropped from $99 to $79",
"type": "price",
"magnitude": "major",
"oldContent": "Previous content..."
}
}After pasting the URL and selecting the platform, click "Test Webhook" in settings. A test message will be sent. If it succeeds, you'll see a ✅ confirmation. If it fails, check that the URL is correct and the receiving service is properly configured.
Understanding Free and Pro tiers.
| Feature | Free | Pro (coming soon) |
|---|---|---|
| Max monitors | 10 | 50 |
| Min check interval | 60 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Change history per monitor | 50 entries | 200 entries |
| AI analyses / month | 100 (or unlimited with own API key) | 1,000 (or unlimited with own API key) |
| Webhook notifications | ✅ | ✅ |
| Desktop notifications | ✅ | ✅ |
Commonly asked questions.
No. WebSense AI runs as a browser extension and requires Chrome to be open. A notice bar in the popup reminds you of this. If you need 24/7 monitoring, keep the browser running or use a cloud-based monitoring service alongside the extension.
WebSense AI automatically filters trivial changes like timestamps, counters, session tokens, and "X minutes ago" text. This is by design to reduce noise. If AI analysis is available, it further evaluates whether a change is meaningful before sending a notification.
A dynamic page is one where the content is rendered by JavaScript (e.g., React, Vue, Angular apps). WebSense AI detects this automatically and uses a background tab rendering strategy to ensure accurate content extraction from these pages.
Yes. Your key is stored locally in Chrome's extension storage and is only ever sent directly to OpenAI's API endpoint. It is never transmitted to any other server.
Yes, as long as you are logged in within Chrome. The extension uses your existing browser session and cookies when fetching pages. For dynamic pages, it opens a background tab using your session context.