Play 1
CRUD watches like any other resource
POST a channel and a threshold. List events. Pause a watch. The dashboard is optional.
Authorization: Bearer spk_live_…
Webhooks and API
YouTube as a price feed. A signed POST when it prints.
If you already glue tools together, Spike is a boring endpoint. Create watches, rotate a key, verify HMAC. When a watched upload crosses the line, we retry until your HTTPS URL accepts the body.
The cost of missing it
Polling YouTube yourself is the expensive part.
You do not want another dashboard. You want a tick: this video, this channel, this view count, now. Same idea as a trade fill — the event is the product.
01
Bringing your own YouTube Data API key means quota, keys, and a worker you will hate at 3am.
02
Unsigned “alerts” are how you get spoofed. HMAC on the raw body is the minimum.
03
A UI-only tool dies the moment you want Discord, n8n, or an agent in the loop.
Practical plays
Three ways to turn a spike into work.
Each play starts with channels you already know, then a threshold, then a hit in the dashboard — webhook if you want one.
Play 2
Verify the signature, then route
X-SpikeYT-Signature is HMAC-SHA256 of the raw JSON. After that, send it to Discord, a queue, or an agent.
n8n webhook node → filter → Discord.
Play 3
Retries and a delivery log, not hope
If your URL is down, we try again. You can see status instead of guessing whether the ping left the building.
Same contract as a payment webhook. Treat it that way.
On autopilot
Add the channels. Get the spike.
You keep the automation. We keep the YouTube polling.
01
Add the channels.
Paste a URL, @handle, or UC id. No YouTube API key. You pick the list — we do not search the whole site.
02
Set the view line.
Example: 3,000 views in the first hour. One condition per watch. That is what “a spike” means here.
03
We watch new uploads.
The tracker polls those channels. Several people watching the same UC id share the YouTube request.
04
You get a signed POST.
HMAC, retries, delivery log. Point it at Discord, n8n, or your own bot.
Questions about the webhook API.
Yes. API keys create watches and read events. Delivery is a signed HTTPS webhook — not a browser push and not an email-only firehose.
Not native in v1. The dashboard works without code. To get Discord today, point the POST at n8n, Make, or a 20-line bot.
Because you subscribe to a condition and get an execution, not a chart to babysit. The homepage stays about creators. This page is for the people who wire the pipe.
More use cases
Same product. Different desk.
Strategy
Know the hour a rival video takes off.
Watch the channels you already compete with. When a new upload crosses your threshold, you get the ping — not a digest tomorrow.
DesksCopy the idea while it’s still in the first hour.
A threshold hit is a topic that already proved demand. Intercept it before the niche is flooded.
FacelessGet pinged when a format in your niche starts printing.
Compilation, narration, stock — the channels on your list are the research. A spike is the format to clone this week.
Start watching
Subscribe to the tick. Skip the polling.
Watch a YouTube channel and set a view threshold. 3 channels for 7 days. No credit card.