Change detection

How Kadoa decides what changed between runs, and what a change looks like

Every time a workflow runs, Kadoa compares the new data with the previous run. Each record that differs is reported as added, removed, or updated. Scheduled workflows compare one run with the last. Monitors do the same continuously.

How records are matched

To spot an update, Kadoa first works out which record in the new run is the same record as before. It does this in three passes:

1. Identical records are unchanged. Whitespace differences don’t count.
2. Records with the same key are compared field by field. Any difference makes the record updated.
3. Everything left is added (new in this run) or removed (gone from this run).

Key fields

A key field is a record’s identity, such as a product URL, SKU, or posting ID. The agent picks key fields when it builds the schema. See Key fields.

// Previous run
{ "id": "12345", "title": "Product A", "price": "$100" }

// Current run: same id, so this is one updated record
{ "id": "12345", "title": "Product A Pro", "price": "$150" }

• Every key field must match for two records to count as the same.
• If a key value itself changes, the record shows up as one removal and one addition.
• Use scalar STRING, NUMBER, or LINK fields as keys.

Without a key field, Kadoa only recognizes exact copies. A record whose price changed shows up as one removal and one addition.

What a change looks like

In the dashboard

1. Open the workflow and select History in the side rail.
2. Select a Data changed entry. It shows how many records were added (+), removed (−), and updated (Δ).
3. The table switches to that change, with each row marked +, −, or Δ. Filter by type with the menu at the top left. Select Back to latest data to return.

Monitors also show a screenshot of the page before and after each change. See See what changed.

As an event

Changes arrive as workflow_data_change events on your notification channels. Each event carries a differences array:

{
  "differences": [
    {
      "type": "changed",
      "fields": [
        { "key": "title", "previousValue": "Old Title", "value": "New Title" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

• type is added, removed, or changed.
• fields lists the record’s fields. previousValue appears on changed records only.

The full payload, including summary and metadata, is in the webhook payload reference.

Choose which changes alert you

You decide which fields, values, and change types trigger an alert. See Filter data change alerts.

Get past changes

Every change stays in the workflow’s History. Select the Data tab to list only data changes.

From code, the /v4/changes endpoint returns past changes. Filter by date range:

GET https://api.kadoa.com/v4/changes?startDate=2024-11-01T00:00:00Z&endDate=2024-11-30T23:59:59Z

See Get all changes for every parameter.