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How Monitoring Works

Understanding the underlying engine helps you build more effective monitors. Redd is built for continuous, high-throughput evaluation of Reddit's firehose.

The Processing Pipeline

Redd follows a structured lifecycle for every post and comment it processes:

  1. Ingestion: Redd continuously fetches new content from Reddit in batches.
  2. Normalization: Content is cleaned and prepared for evaluation (e.g., handling markdown, extracting metadata).
  3. Evaluation: Your active monitors are run against the new content. This is where your boolean logic trees are applied.
  4. Matching: If a piece of content satisfies all conditions of a monitor, it is flagged as a "Match."
  5. Delivery: The match is recorded in your dashboard and pushed to any configured delivery channels (Webhooks/Email).

Latency and Frequency

Reddit content is processed in continuous batches. While not "instantaneous" in the millisecond sense, matches typically appear within minutes of being posted on Reddit. This balance ensures high reliability and allows the engine to handle complex logic without dropping data.

The Evaluation Engine

The heart of Redd is its condition engine. Unlike simple string matching, Redd evaluates conditions based on specific fields:

  • Metadata: Subreddit name, Author name, Content Type (Post vs. Comment).
  • Text Fields: Title, Body, or the "Full Content" (which combines title and body).

Batch Processing

Redd evaluates monitors in parallel across batches of content. This means that even if you have dozens of complex monitors, they all run simultaneously without slowing each other down.

Match Persistence

Matches are stored in your account so you can review them later.

  • Unseen Status: Matches are marked as "unseen" until you view them on the dashboard or receive them in an email digest.
  • Matched Values: For every match, the engine stores the specific value that triggered the condition (e.g., which specific keyword from your list was found in the title).
No Polling Required

You do not need to poll the Redd API or keep your dashboard open. Once a monitor is saved, the engine handles everything in the background.