Feed, Dash, Push — where each Calyston alert goes

Open any camera in Calyston, switch to the AI Detection tab, and you'll find the alert rules. A rule reads almost like a sentence:

"person @ driveway · feed/push · 60s" — when a person is detected in the driveway zone, highlight it in the event feed and push it to my phone, at most once every 60 seconds.

The three checkboxes are three different destinations for the same detection. They answer three different questions.

Dash — "are you watching right now?"

Dash fires a live alert on the dashboard: a toast with the camera, the category and the snapshot, the moment the detection happens. It's for the screen you already have open — the kitchen tablet, the office monitor, the video wall. It's transient by design: if nobody's looking, it costs nothing and interrupts nobody.

Feed — "what happened while I was away?"

Feed marks the event as an alert in the Events page. Every detection is recorded in the history either way — feed decides whether it stands out. Rows flagged by a feed rule are highlighted, so when you scroll through last night's events, the things you said you care about jump out from the routine traffic. Think of it as pre-sorting your morning review.

Push — "find me, wherever I am"

Push is the only channel that leaves the app: the alert — snapshot included — goes to every push service you've configured (Telegram, ntfy and/or Discord; five-minute setup here).

Because a buzzing phone is the most expensive alert there is, push is the only channel with extra guards:

• Arm / Disarm — each camera has an armed switch. Disarmed = no push from it, period. Recording, feed and dash keep working; only your pocket is spared.
• Quiet hours — a per-camera schedule that suppresses push during chosen periods (say, while the shop is open) and lets it through the rest of the time. Again: only push — the history never has gaps.

The cooldown number

The seconds field on each rule is its cooldown: the minimum time between two alerts from that rule. A person walking around your yard is one event to you, but ten detections to the AI — the cooldown collapses them. 30–60 s is a good default for people; give vehicles on a busy street something longer, or scope the rule to a zone instead.

Zones — alert on where, not just what

Rules can apply anywhere in the frame or inside a zone you've drawn — the doorway, the gate, the till. The camera sees the whole street; your rule only cares about your side of the fence. Zones are the difference between "a car exists" and "a car is on my driveway" — draw them first and your alerts get instantly smarter.

Recipes

• Front door at home — person @ doorway · feed + dash + push · 30s. You want it all: the toast if you're at the screen, the highlight for review, the phone when you're out. Quiet hours off — the door matters at 3 AM most of all.
• Busy street camera — person @ anywhere · feed only · 60s. Everything is reviewable, nothing buzzes. Add a second rule, person @ gate · push · 60s, and only your gate reaches your pocket.
• Shop after closing — person @ anywhere · feed + push · 30s, with quiet hours covering opening times. Customers never page you; a 2 AM visitor does.
• Wildlife cam — animal @ anywhere · dash + feed · 120s. Fun to glance at, logged for later, never urgent.

One more thing worth knowing: rules are additive. A camera can carry as many as you like, each with its own zone, channels and cooldown — Calyston evaluates them all and fires whichever match.

Alerts should work like a good assistant: everything noted, the important things highlighted, and only the urgent things allowed to interrupt. Feed, dash, push — in that order.