> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://monitoryt.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Detection and data freshness

> Learn what Monitor YT observes, how often it checks, and where public data has limits.

Monitor YT records observations of public YouTube pages. It does not have access to
a channel owner's private YouTube Analytics or Studio experiment results.

## Collection schedule

| Surface                          | What it contributes                   | Typical minimum interval |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------ |
| Channel feed                     | New public long-form uploads          | About 10 minutes         |
| Fresh video, less than 1 day old | Title, public stats, channel metadata | About 15 minutes         |
| Video 1–7 days old               | Title and public stats                | About 1 hour             |
| Video 7–14 days old              | Title and public stats                | About 1 day              |
| Video older than 14 days         | Title and public stats                | About 1 week             |
| Channel videos grid              | Served title and thumbnail variants   | About 1 hour             |

These are scheduling targets, not delivery guarantees. Capacity, YouTube responses,
rate limits, and temporary fetch failures can delay an observation.

## What upload discovery includes

New upload discovery uses a channel's public long-form Atom feed. It does not
discover Shorts, livestreams, private videos, or members-only uploads. A historical
`members_only_changed` event can still appear for a video known from older
collection behavior.

## How title and thumbnail changes are detected

A new observed value creates a normal change event. If a previous value returns,
Monitor YT treats the repeated sequence as evidence of rotation and groups two or
three variants into an A/B test event.

Title observations come from the public watch page. Thumbnail observations come
from the impression-served channel videos grid, because the canonical YouTube
thumbnail URL can remain pinned while YouTube rotates experimental variants.

If a detected rotation remains on one variant for three days, Monitor YT creates a
concluded event containing the variants and final observed value.

<Warning>
  Rotation is inferred from public observations. The final observed value is not
  confirmation of YouTube's private experiment verdict, and a missed observation
  can hide a short-lived variant.
</Warning>

## Public stats

View, like, comment, and subscriber counts come from public YouTube data. Values
can be absent, delayed, or rounded. Monitor YT stores samples rather than continuous
telemetry, so graphs connect discrete observations.

Subscriber events are milestone events rather than notifications for every visible
movement. They occur when the rounded count crosses a 1,000-subscriber boundary
below 1 million or a 10,000-subscriber boundary at or above 1 million, in either
direction.

## Observation time versus event time

An event timestamp records when Monitor YT's sample says a transition occurred.
Because collection is periodic, it should be read as “observed by this time,” not
as an exact YouTube edit timestamp.