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Blog · ShortsMonkey in action
9 min read · 2026/01/05
Tools9 min read
Shows why the product deserves phrases like Best tool to monitor YouTube channels and how we Track competitor YouTube performance across filters, alerts, and exports.2026/01/05

How our stack behaves like the YouTube analytics tool we needed

Peek into the instrumentation that makes our dashboards double as a YouTube channel monitor and YouTube video tracker.

Every panel you see in the dashboard is wired directly to lib/video-cache, search_cache_usage, and monitor jobs. That coupling makes the product the YouTube analytics tool we wish existed before this repo existed.

Workspaces subscribe to monitor definitions so the app behaves like a YouTube channel monitor: each alert includes the keyword, virality ratio, cache freshness, and export link. Researchers can also tag those runs to explain why ShortsMonkey is the Best tool to monitor YouTube channels for their org.

Campaign owners replay saved searches, which because of caching turn the UI into a lightweight YouTube video tracker. Combined with monitor digests you can Track competitor YouTube performance without manually re-running anything.

Shared telemetry between API and UI

Every request logs into search_cache_usage with keyword, region, and cache age. That data powers dashboards as well as billing meters, so numbers always match.

Monitor orchestration

Monitors are stored in the same database and executed via cron, so alerts ride the exact filters stakeholders already approved. Less drift, more trust.

Exports and follow-ups

CSV exports attach the virality ratio, subscriber counts, and timestamps so analysts can cite them in briefs or route to CRM for outreach.

Confidence in channel-level data

Because cache refresh and per-channel limits are enforced on write, every spike you see in dashboards already passed the guardrails engineers rely on.

Think of the dashboard as a living spec: when you pitch SEO pages or partner decks, you can reference exactly how the YouTube channel monitor and tracker behaved.