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GitHub watcher

Rob Garrison edited this page Oct 24, 2022 · 4 revisions

A userscript that can check a repo, folder, file or branch for updates

  • This userscripts adds an spy icon with dropdown next to the notification icon in the header
  • Inside the dropdown:
    • Watch row showing last update, a link to the watched item and commit description
    • Force refresh, settings to add a GitHub token and adjust check frequency
    • Link to these docs
    • Ability to add more items
  • Click this link to install from GitHub; or, install from GreasyFork or OpenUserJS.

Screenshots

watcher panel

Using:

Setup

  • Install the userscript (below)

  • Open the GitHub watcher dropdown (click on the spy icon in the header)

  • Use the link in the footer to add a GitHub personal access token - this is required to access GitHub's GraphQL API.

    newly initialized watcher asking for a GitHub token
  • On the personal access token page:

    • Enter "Public repo" (or whatever) into "Note"
    • Choose public_repo checkbox (fourth one down) generate token
    • Click "Generate token" button at the bottom of the page
  • The copy the new token to the clipboard (click the clipboard icon). Leave this tab open until you're done with this next part copy token

  • In the watcher dropdown

    • Paste the token into the "GitHub Token" input
    • Modify the timer interval (in minutes) as desired
    • Click "Save" to save your token
    save token
  • Add watched items; repeat as desired

    • Click on the plus icon (+) in the dropdown footer
    add urls - Enter a GitHub URL and click "Save" save url

Panel details

Settings view

settings

GitHub token

Add a personal access token to the input to allow access to the GitHub graphQL API

Interval

Add a time, in minutes, between item checks.

Minimum time is restricted to 5 minutes because every check costs points - see GraphQL API rate limit for more details

Max is arbitrarily set to 9999 minutes (~166 hours or ~7 days).

Footer

footer

Mark all read

A checkbox will appear to the left of the "Last checked" time allowing you to click and mark all unread updates as read.

See the watch row section to see this checkmark

Refresh

Click this icon to force a recheck of all files. Otherwise a recheck will occur after the set time interval.

Adding a new item to watch, changing the GitHub token or the time interval will also reset the timer.

Settings

Click this icon to toggle the settings panel view

Error messages

Any global error messages will appear next to the settings icon. File specific errors will appear on the watched item entry

Read docs

Use this link (circle-question mark icon) to get to this wiki page

Add URL

Click this button to add a new item watch row to the dropdown

Watch row

watch row

Unread

A checkmark will appear next to the entry when it has an "unread" update. Click this button to indicate that you have acknowledged seeing this change

Edit

The edit button will only appear if the row is hovered or focused.

Use this button to modify the URL of the watched item

Delete

The delete button will only appear if the row is hovered or focused.

Use this button to delete the entry.

Change Log

Version 0.2.3 (2022-10-24)

  • Update dependencies.

Version 0.2.2 (2021-11-30)

  • Fix colors.

Version 0.2.1 (2021-07-21)

  • Update mutation script.
  • Update utils script.

Version 0.2.0 (2021-02-28)

  • Initial commit.