pokemon-stock-checker/docs/SMART_MONITOR_DESIGN.md

Smart Monitor Design Document

Overview

Design for an adaptive monitoring system that mimics human behavior and automatically switches modes based on detected activity.

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Monitoring Modes

1. STEALTH MODE (Default)

• Check interval: 45-90 seconds (randomized around 1 minute)
• Behavior: Human-like patterns, decoy requests
• Purpose: Avoid detection during normal monitoring

2. ALERT MODE (Triggered by new SKU)

• Check interval: 15-30 seconds (faster, still randomized)
• Duration: 30-60 minutes after detection
• Purpose: Catch the drop going live quickly

3. COOLDOWN MODE (After alert period)

• Gradually slow back down to stealth mode
• Prevents sudden behavior change which could trigger detection

4. SLEEP MODE (Optional - night hours)

• Check interval: 5-10 minutes
• Active hours: e.g., 2am-6am local time
• Purpose: Real humans sleep, bots don't

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Human-Like Obfuscation Techniques

Timing Randomization

# Instead of exact intervals:
time.sleep(60)  # BAD - robotic

# Use gaussian distribution around target:
import random
base_interval = 60
jitter = random.gauss(0, 10)  # +/- 10 seconds standard deviation
time.sleep(max(30, base_interval + jitter))  # GOOD - human-like

Decoy Requests

Mix in non-API requests to look like a real browser:

• Occasionally fetch an image from the site
• Load the homepage or a random category page
• Request favicon, robots.txt, etc.

DECOY_URLS = [
    "/favicon.ico",
    "/",
    "/category/plush",
    "/category/accessories",
]

def make_decoy_request():
    """Occasionally make a non-API request"""
    if random.random() < 0.2:  # 20% of the time
        url = random.choice(DECOY_URLS)
        session.get(API_BASE + url)

Referrer Rotation

Change the Referer header to look like you're browsing:

REFERRERS = [
    "https://www.pokemoncenter.com/",
    "https://www.pokemoncenter.com/category/tcg-cards",
    "https://www.pokemoncenter.com/category/new-releases",
    "https://www.google.com/",
]

headers["Referer"] = random.choice(REFERRERS)

User-Agent Variation

Slightly vary the User-Agent (within reason):

# Base UA with minor variations
chrome_versions = ["146.0.0.0", "145.0.0.0", "146.0.7680.154"]
version = random.choice(chrome_versions)
headers["User-Agent"] = f"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/{version} Safari/537.36"

Session Breaks

Occasionally "take a break" like a human would:

def maybe_take_break():
    """Occasionally pause for a longer period"""
    if random.random() < 0.05:  # 5% chance
        break_duration = random.randint(120, 300)  # 2-5 minutes
        logger.info(f"Taking a break for {break_duration}s...")
        time.sleep(break_duration)

Time-of-Day Awareness

Adjust behavior based on time:

from datetime import datetime

def get_interval_for_time():
    hour = datetime.now().hour

    if 2 <= hour < 6:
        # Late night - slower checks
        return random.randint(300, 600)  # 5-10 min
    elif 9 <= hour < 17:
        # Business hours - prime drop time
        return random.randint(45, 90)  # ~1 min
    else:
        # Evening/early morning
        return random.randint(60, 120)  # 1-2 min

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Mode Transition Logic

                    ┌─────────────────┐
                    │  STEALTH MODE   │
                    │  (45-90 sec)    │
                    └────────┬────────┘
                             │
                    New SKU detected?
                             │
              YES ───────────┴─────────── NO
               │                          │
               ▼                          │
    ┌─────────────────┐                   │
    │   ALERT MODE    │                   │
    │  (15-30 sec)    │◄──────────────────┘
    └────────┬────────┘
             │
      30-60 min elapsed?
             │
          YES │
             ▼
    ┌─────────────────┐
    │  COOLDOWN MODE  │
    │  (gradually     │
    │   slow down)    │
    └────────┬────────┘
             │
             ▼
    Back to STEALTH MODE

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Detection Tracking

When a new product is detected:

1. Log detection with timestamp
2. Fetch full product details
3. Send Discord alert
4. Enter ALERT MODE
5. Track if product becomes "announced":
   • Visible on homepage
   • Linked from category pages
   • Social media announcement

When product is announced, return to STEALTH MODE.

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Implementation Priority

1. Basic backend monitor (done)
2. Add timing randomization
3. Implement mode switching
4. Add decoy requests
5. Add time-of-day awareness
6. Add session breaks
7. Integrate with Discord notifier

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Testing Plan

1. Test with cookies: Run warmup, verify API access works
2. Test SKU detection: Manually add a fake SKU to known list, verify detection
3. Test mode switching: Simulate detection, verify faster checks activate
4. Monitor for blocks: Run for extended period, note when cookies expire

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Risk Mitigation

Risk	Mitigation
Cookies expire	Auto-detect 403, prompt for re-warmup
IP blocked	Support proxy rotation (already built)
Pattern detected	Randomization + decoys + breaks
Rate limited	Back off on 429 responses