Getting Started
Welcome to Prowlo. This guide takes you from sign-up to a searchable Dataset you can query from the dashboard, an AI agent, or the REST API.
What is Prowlo?
Prowlo is the MCP-native social data layer for AI agents. You point Watchers at the communities you care about; Prowlo crawls them, embeds every record, and builds your Dataset — a clean, vector-indexed corpus you can query from the dashboard, an AI agent over MCP, or the REST API. Prowlo is read-only: it never posts, comments, or votes.
Quick setup
Create a Watcher
A Watcher defines what Prowlo ingests — one channel each. Go to Watchers and add the subreddits, Reddit users, Hacker News searches, Mastodon accounts, RSS feeds, or X accounts you want to track — or open Keyword Monitor to track a query across all of Reddit. With no Watchers, Prowlo makes no requests — you decide exactly what it reads.
Tip
Add optional intake filters to a Watcher so only posts matching your criteria are indexed into your Dataset — useful for high-volume communities. See Intake filters & tagging rules.
Let your Dataset fill
Prowlo crawls your watched communities on a tier-bounded cadence — roughly hourly for active ones — and indexes new posts into your Dataset. Watch progress under Crawl activity, and browse the results under Dataset.
Search your Dataset
Use Search to query your Dataset — exact keyword matching, or semantic search that finds records by meaning even without the exact terms.
Connect an agent or the API
The easiest way is the one-URL custom connector: paste https://api.prowlo.com/mcp into your client and sign in with OAuth — no API key. For the REST API (or clients that need a key), generate one on the API access page — the same key works for both. See the MCP Setup Guide.
Get notified (optional)
Connect your AI assistant
For the best experience, connect an AI assistant to Prowlo over MCP. Your AI can then search your Dataset, pull records and comment threads, and manage Watchers, keywords, alerts, and trends — all from chat.
The simplest way is the one-URL custom connector — paste https://api.prowlo.com/mcp, click Connect, and sign in with OAuth (no API key). Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop connect this way in one step; Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf use the same hosted URL (add an API key only if your client needs one). See the MCP Setup Guide.
Next steps
- How It Works — the full pipeline, end to end
- Watchers — channels, prefilter rules, and tagging
- Keyword Monitor — search all of Reddit for your terms
- MCP Integration — connect your AI tools
- REST API Reference — query your Dataset from code