How Tendline works: routines, look-checks and the morning brief

Six kinds of routine

You don’t pick a kind. You write a sentence, and Tendline shows you which of these it heard, on which camera, at which times. You can change any of it.

Should happen

“Tell me if Mom’s front door hasn’t opened by 11.”

What you’d hear“Mom’s front door hasn’t opened by 11:00 AM. The porch camera could see the whole morning.”
Shouldn’t happen

“Tell me if a vehicle pulls into the cabin drive on weekdays, 9 to 5.”

What you’d hear“A vehicle in the cabin drive at 1:28 PM: a white pickup.”
Look at a set time

“At 10 PM, make sure the garage is closed. Keep checking every 30 minutes.”

What you’d hear“Garage open at 10:00 PM. Looking again at 10:30.”
Too long

“Tell me if a package sits outside more than 2 hours.”

What you’d hear“A package has been on the porch for 2 hours. UPS left it at 2:26 PM.”
Tell me when

“Tell me when the school bus comes.”

What you’d hear“School bus out front, 3:12 PM.”
How many

“Tell me if more than 6 people are on the deck after 10 PM.”

What you’d hear“7 people on the deck at 10:40 PM. Your limit is 6.”

Try the routine builderType a sentence and see how Tendline reads it.

The practice week

A new routine doesn’t alert anyone for its first seven days. It runs quietly and keeps a list of every message it would have sent.

At the end of the week you can see whether it would have helped or nagged, and change the window, the limit or the camera before it ever reaches your phone.

Why a week, and not a replay of last month? Tendline can only use camera history from after you connect it. So the first week is real practice on real days.

Practice week, day 7 of 7

“Dog walker between 12 and 2 on weekdays.”

Front and side cameras · Monday to Friday · 12:00 to 2:00 PM

Would have sent 1 alert in 5 weekdays. On Wednesday the walker came at 2:25 PM. Widen the window to 2:30?

MonArrived 12:40, left 1:10.
TueArrived 12:15, left 12:45.
WedWould have sent 2:00 PM. Arrived 2:25, left 2:55.
ThuArrived 1:05, left 1:35.
FriArrived 12:50, left 1:20.

Look-checks: a question at a set time

Some questions are about a moment, not a movement. Is the garage closed? Are the bins out? A look-check asks your camera a yes-or-no question at the time you choose, and keeps asking until the answer is right or the window ends.

Each answer comes with the frame it used and when that frame was taken. If the newest frame is too old to count, which happens with battery cameras that only record on motion, it says no fresh image instead of answering.

Look-check · Garage cameraEvery night at 10:00 PM

“Is the garage door closed?”

10:00 PM: openFrame from 10:00 PM. Night, infrared, readable. Looking again at 10:30.

10:30 PM: closedFrame from 10:30 PM. Night, infrared, readable. Done for tonight.

Coverage good: a fresh frame at each check.

Camera frames are drawn here, not photographed. In the app you see the actual frame.

Honest about what it couldn’t see

Cameras go offline. Nights get too dark. A frame can be too old to trust. Tendline never turns a gap into a guess, and it never reports something as missed when it couldn’t actually look.

Front door by 11, porch camera online all morning

Missed

The camera could see the whole window and the door didn’t open. You get a heads-up.

Front door by 11, porch camera offline 10:12–11:40

Couldn’t confirm

The camera was down at the deadline. You’re told that, with the times, and it isn’t counted as a miss.

A window counts as properly covered when the cameras it uses were online and readable for at least 80% of it, and at its end. Anything less, and the result is “couldn’t confirm” with the reason.

Every alert and every brief carries this coverage line. You always know whether “nothing happened” means nothing happened, or nobody could see.

Coverage watch, on every plan including Free, gives you a heads-up when a camera goes offline, goes silent, or is too dark to read at the times your routines need it.

OfflineThe camera dropped off its network or lost power. You get the times it was gone.
Too darkThe frame was too dark or washed out to read. Tendline says “can’t tell”, never a guess.
EncryptedYou’ve turned on end-to-end encryption for that camera, so its video isn’t readable by anyone else. That’s your choice; Tendline just says so.
No fresh imageAt a look-check, the newest frame was too old to count. Common with battery cameras.

The right person hears about it

Each routine has its own list of who gets told. The garage goes to whoever locks up. Mom’s front door goes to the siblings. The dog walker goes to you.

You can add a backup: if the first person doesn’t tap Seen within a set time, Tendline passes it on to the next one.

Alerts arrive as notifications on your phone (straight from the browser, no app store), by email, or in your team’s Slack, Discord or Google Chat. People you add don’t need an account: you send them a link once, and their phone gets the alerts that name them.

Mom’s front door by 11

Tuesday · Sam first, then Priya after 15 minutes

11:00 AMSent to Sam. Mom’s front door hasn’t opened by 11. The porch camera could see the whole morning.
11:15 AMSent to Priya. Sam hadn’t tapped Seen.
11:17 AMPriya tapped Seen. No one else is told.
11:32 AMFront door opened. It will be in tomorrow’s brief for both of them.

Watch: when someone’s around

Your cameras already notice motion. Watch is what happens next: each event is read as several frames, and sightings across your cameras are put together into one account of what someone did over the next few minutes.

It adds up things anyone would want to know at 2 AM: a covered face, something in hand, a hand on a door handle, going camera to camera. A few together is a heads-up. Several is look now, with short updates as the person moves, and the next person is told if you don’t tap Seen.

It describes, never identifies, and doesn’t call anyone for you. It’s an add-on to any plan: $19.99 a month.

Maple Street, Tuesday night

Watch on · quiet hours 11 PM to 6 AM

2:04 AMLook now: someone with their face covered at the Driveway. At the driver’s door of the parked car.
2:06 AMUpdate: now at the Front Door, holding a long object. Clothing: dark hoodie, grey pants.
2:09 AMUpdate: now at the Garage, a hand on a door handle. 2:04 Driveway, 2:06 Front Door, 2:09 Garage (5 min).
2:10 AMSam tapped Seen. No one else is told. The frames are ready for a proof page.

The morning brief

At 7:00 every morning, local time, one brief covers yesterday at every place on your account, in four parts that always come in the same order.

Needs a look. Wrong states, packages still out, deadlines that couldn’t be confirmed.
Didn’t happen. Missed, with good coverage.
Happened. Deliveries by carrier and time, visits and how long they lasted, routines met.
Couldn’t see. Which camera, when, and what it affected.

The brief is assembled from what was recorded during the day, so it can’t drift into storytelling.

Morning brief

Friday, 6 November

Yesterday at 2 places, 4 cameras. Sent 7:00 AM.

Needs a look 1

6:12 PMMom’s house. A package has been on the porch since 6:12 PM. Not seen brought in.

Didn’t happen 1

12–2 PMHome. No dog walker seen. The front and side cameras could see the whole window.

Happened 6

7:00 AMHome. Bins at the curb at the 7:00 check.
11:47 AMMom’s house. Front door opened.
2:05 PMMom’s house. A visitor, 2:05 to 3:20 PM (1 h 15 min).
2:26 PMHome. UPS left a package. Brought in at 3:38 PM.
3:38 PMHome. Kids home, ahead of the 4:00 deadline.
10:30 PMHome. Garage was open at the 10:00 check, closed by the 10:30 re-check.

Couldn’t see 1

10:12 AMMom’s house. Porch camera offline 10:12 to 11:40 AM, so “front door by 11” couldn’t be confirmed.

Ask, and see the receipts

Ask a plain question about your week: when FedEx came, how long the landscaper stayed, whether anyone used the side gate. The answer counts and times things, shows the frames it relied on, and says when it can’t be complete.

Tendline also keeps time for you. Arrivals and departures become stretches with a length: “Cleaner arrived 10:02, left 12:47 (2 h 45 min).”

When did FedEx come this week?

Twice: Monday at 2:14 PM and Wednesday at 11:02 AM, both to the front door.

Mon 2:14 PM

Wed 11:02 AM

Tue 9:00–11:20 AM

Not complete: the side camera was offline Tuesday 9:00 to 11:20 AM, so a delivery to the side door then wouldn’t show here.

Suggestions from your own week

After a couple of weeks, Tendline may notice a pattern and offer a routine for it. It tells you what it noticed, in numbers you can check. Nothing turns on by itself, and every suggestion starts in practice.

Suggested from the last 14 days at Home

“Packages usually arrive between 1 and 4 PM. Want a heads-up if one sits outside more than 2 hours?”

7 deliveries in 14 days; 5 of them between 1 and 4 PM.

You say what should happen. Tendline checks.