# News briefings only when your field moves

> Background monitors with a deliberately high bar for interrupting you.

Althea monitors external sources in the background. It wakes on a schedule, runs targeted searches, and weighs what it finds against your research focus. Most runs end quietly, with nothing sent.

## The relevance bar

Twice a week by default, Althea queries news APIs and runs timeboxed searches over the last 72 hours, guided by your [researcher profile](/memory), down to specifics like "consensus algorithms" within "distributed systems." A filter then discards everything that does not specifically matter to you, de-duplicates stories, and drops low-value content. If nothing significant happened, Althea takes no action. Tune it in settings, from the email footer, or by asking:

| You say | Althea does |
| --- | --- |
| "Watch test-time finetuning for remote sensing for me" | The topic joins the interests your briefing searches run on |
| "Check daily instead" / "only interrupt me for X" | Changes the cadence or raises the bar |

## A real example

Nasim sent Martin a link about the Manus acquisition; moments later, Althea's notification arrived carrying the same link. A colleague and an agent, running on similar models of what matters to Martin's work, made the same call independently. The target is judgment aligned with a close colleague rather than a keyword alert.

![The Manus acquisition briefing notification, as Althea delivered it](/case-studies/news-briefing-manus.webp)

_The Manus briefing, as received._

## Where the ping lands

Wherever you want it: web, email, WhatsApp. The same agent and memory follow along, so a briefing on your phone picks up in the chat on your desk; details are under [channels](/anywhere). When a briefing surfaces something big, hand it straight to [a deep review](/literature).