Quick start

This page takes you from a fresh install to a watch that runs by itself. It assumes resmon is installed and open; if not, start with Install and launch.

1. Look at the first-run card

On a fresh install, Today shows a Getting started card where the map will be. It appears while resmon holds no papers, runs, or watches, and it goes away for good when you press Skip.

The card lists three things. None is required, and resmon searches every source that needs no key with no AI at all.

Step	Where it leads	What the mark means
Use an AI plan you already pay for	Settings › AI	found if the claude or codex command is on your computer
Or bring an API key	Settings › AI	done if a key is stored
Add a key for a source that wants one	Settings › Sources	done if a key is stored for any source

The card reports found and done, and never “working”. resmon cannot tell whether a command is signed in or a key is accepted until the first paper goes through it.

2. Ask the sources once

Press ⌘D (Ctrl+D on Windows and Linux), or open New search in the top bar and choose Deep Dive. This opens Search › Ask the sources.

1. Type a term and press Enter. Each term becomes a chip, and the terms are sent together; every source combines them its own way. Add more terms the same way.
2. Choose a source. A Deep Dive asks one source. The list shows how each source combines terms, how many requests resmon may make, and how finely it dates a paper. A source marked needs an API key is recorded as not asked until you store one in Settings › Sources.
3. Leave Published at 30 days, or choose 7 days, a year, or any time, or set the From and To dates. Up to 100 papers per source is the default cap.
4. Press Ask followed by the source’s name.

For several sources at once, press ⇧⌘D (Ctrl+Shift+D) or choose Deep Sweep, tick the sources, and press Ask followed by the number of sources.

Under the button, resmon says what it already knows about this particular ask: which chosen source sets the pace, which source cannot date papers as finely as your window, and which sources need a start date. It does not guess how many papers you will get.

The run opens on its own page. While it runs, each source’s line changes as its answer arrives. When it ends, the page lists the recorded outcome of each source and a sentence summing them up. Below that are tabs: Papers, Map, Report, Search record, Log, Metadata, and Progress. See Search.

Press Save to read on a paper to put it in your Library › Reading queue.

3. Make it a watch

A watch asks the same question on a schedule. From a run’s form, press Watch this search, or press New watch in Watches. The editor asks for:

• Name.
• What it follows. Words, a person’s new papers, or retractions and corrections on a person’s papers.
• Terms to watch for and Sources.
• When it runs. Every day, weekdays, once a week, once a month, or every few hours, with a time. The editor shows the schedule in words.
• Which papers each run asks for. The default is papers published since the previous run.
• When a run finishes. Whether to notify you, and whether to email the report.

The What it will do panel on the right restates the form as sentences, including warnings: a source with no key, a start date a source needs, a schedule the words cannot state. Press Save watch. It starts watching when saved, unless you turned that off.

4. Turn on the background service

A resmon window does not run watches on its own. Only the background service does. Without it, once a watch is watching, Today says “Your watches will not run: no background service is set up.”

Open Settings › In the background and turn on Run resmon in the background. resmon asks you to confirm, then writes a launch agent on macOS, a scheduled task on Windows, or a systemd user unit on Linux, and registers it with launchd, Task Scheduler, or systemd. The service starts when you log in and runs your watches with or without a window open. Running now on the same page says whether it is actually running.

A watch’s page has Run now, which runs it once whatever the schedule says.

5. Come back to Today

Today shows the papers resmon collected since you last pressed Mark all read. The first time, it shows the last seven days. The footer says when your next watch is due, and whether anything will run it.

If a source did not answer on a watch’s last run, a line under that watch names the source and offers Why. A watch with nothing new is listed under Nothing new from, so a quiet watch and a broken one can be told apart.

For what each screen does in detail, see Today, Search, Watches and people, and Health.