Core concepts

Argus is a context data layer. Deterministic ingestion keeps working without an LLM; optional OpenRouter intelligence reads the stored evidence later.

From watch to record

A watch names a schedule and a set of X, public Telegram, and Web inputs. Each input expands into a deterministic target. The scheduler persists due jobs, a worker leases them, and one commit writes the normalized records plus the target checkpoint.

A canonical record ID is the SHA-256 identity of source + externalId. It does not contain a watch or target, so the same source item observed by two watches is stored once and linked to both observations. Records preserve source URL, text, raw payload, first/last-seen times, media pointers, relations, and latest engagement. Changed content creates an immutable revision; engagement-only changes create engagement snapshots instead.

Media pointers, never media bytes

Argus stores public URLs and metadata for images, video, audio, and documents. It never mirrors the bytes. This keeps the deterministic data layer small and lets a downstream agent decide whether and how to retrieve a source asset.

X conversations

Reply tracking is separate work from root-post ingestion. A successful root record can start an independent conversation tracker. Refresh jobs follow distinct upstream cursors until exhaustion or 500 distinct replies, select the configured bounded sample, store those replies as ordinary canonical records, and atomically save their ranks in a conversation snapshot.

“50 most liked” means the 50 most-liked replies Argus observed, not a claim about every reply on X. Each snapshot records observed count, retained count, ordering, page count, completeness, truncation reason, and collection time.

Artifacts and provenance

Summaries and query answers are derived artifacts, never replacements for records. An artifact points to the exact record and media IDs used, provider, model, generation ID, prompt/question, and media dispositions. Social reply evidence is marked as an observed bounded sample.

Transient primitives

Authenticated agents can use Argus as a bounded proxy for configured FxEmbed v2 GET/HEAD calls and SearXNG search. Primitive responses are not persisted. The caller cannot choose an upstream origin; paths, redirects, time, response size, and rate are bounded. This enables traversal without turning every intermediate request into permanent data.

SQLite and PostgreSQL

SQLite runs the full stack in one process and is the easiest VPS deployment. PostgreSQL implements the same storage contract and permits separate runtime roles. Argus v2 refuses legacy database schemas before mutation instead of silently mixing incompatible data models.