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

# Monitors

> Sample live production traffic, judge outputs against rules, and surface verdicts for review

**Monitors** continuously sample live production traffic, judge each sampled invocation against a configurable set of rules, and store the verdicts so you can review them in the Portal.

A Monitor defines:

* **What to judge** (the runner, a model + prompt, a workflow, or the production output itself)
* **How to decide the verdict** (the resolution, boolean groups of conditions that map to `error` / `warning` / `pass`)
* **What to watch** (one or more targets (intents, workflows, or agents) each with its own sample rate)

Monitors are scoped to your **Company**. The same Monitor can watch many targets, and each target sets its own sampling percentage.

## Where to manage Monitors

In the Portal, go to `Test > Monitors`.

From there you can:

* Create a new Monitor (`+ New Monitor`)
* Open any existing Monitor to edit configuration, attach/detach targets, publish versions, and view recent runs
* Pause sampling or activate a Monitor without deleting it

## How Monitors compare to Sentinels

|                        | **Sentinels**                                        | **Monitors**                                                      |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Scope                  | Per-Intent-Group                                     | Cross-resource (intent / workflow / agent)                        |
| Trigger                | Every qualifying request (always-on)                 | Sampled at a configurable rate                                    |
| Judge                  | Always an LLM directive against the request/response | Choice of model, workflow, or **direct** evaluation of the output |
| Where verdicts surface | Evaluations                                          | Monitors area (Activity chart, At-a-Glance, Runs)                 |

Use **Sentinels** when you want to evaluate every request for a specific Intent Group with an LLM judge. Use **Monitors** when you want to sample across higher-level surfaces (intents, workflows, agents), use a workflow or a direct rule as the judge, or watch the same kind of failure across multiple resources.

## Monitor lifecycle

1. **Draft**: newly created or edited Monitors land here. Sampling is off.
2. **Active**: sampling fires for every attached target at its configured rate.
3. **Paused**: Monitor exists and keeps history, but no new runs are produced until reactivated.

Each save to the Monitor's name, description, or config bumps `has_unpublished_changes=true`. You can [publish a version](/observe/monitors/versions) when you're ready to freeze a snapshot for review or rollback.

Next: [Configuration](/observe/monitors/configuration).