watchers✓ تایید شده

محتوای SKILL.md

---
name: watchers
description: Poll RSS, JSON APIs, and GitHub with watermark dedup.
version: 1.0.0
author: Hermes Agent
license: MIT
platforms: [linux, macos]
metadata:
  hermes:
    tags: [cron, polling, rss, github, http, automation, monitoring]
    category: devops
    requires_toolsets: [terminal]
    related_skills: []
---

# Watchers

Poll external sources on an interval and react only to new items. Three ready-made scripts plus a shared watermark helper; wire them into a cron job (or run them ad-hoc from the terminal).

## When to Use

- User wants to watch an RSS/Atom feed and be notified of new entries
- User wants to watch a GitHub repo's issues / pulls / releases / commits
- User wants to poll an arbitrary JSON endpoint and get notified on new items
- User asks for "a watcher for X" or "notify me when X changes"

## Mental model

A watcher is just a script that:

1. Fetches data from the external source
2. Compares against a watermark file of previously-seen IDs
3. Writes the new watermark back
4. Prints new items to stdout (or nothing on no-change)

The scripts below handle all three. The agent runs them via the terminal tool — from a cron job, a webhook, or an interactive chat — and reports what's new.

## Ready-made scripts

All three live in `$HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/` once the skill is installed. Each reads `WATCHER_STATE_DIR` (defaults to `$HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/`) for its state file, keyed by the `--name` argument.

| Script | What it watches | Dedup key |
|---|---|---|
| `watch_rss.py` | RSS 2.0 or Atom feed URL | `<guid>` / `<id>` |
| `watch_http_json.py` | Any JSON endpoint returning a list of objects | Configurable id field |
| `watch_github.py` | GitHub issues / pulls / releases / commits for a repo | `id` / `sha` |

All three:

- First run records a baseline — never replays existing feed
- Watermark is a bounded ID set (max 500) to cap memory
- Output format: `## <title>\n<url>\n\n<optional body>` per item
- Empty stdout on no-new — the caller treats that as silent
- Non-zero exit on fetch errors

## Usage

Run a watcher directly from the terminal tool:

```bash
python $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_rss.py \
  --name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss --max 5
```

Watch a GitHub repo (set `GITHUB_TOKEN` in `${HERMES_HOME:-~/.hermes}/.env` to avoid the 60 req/hr anonymous rate limit):

```bash
python $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_github.py \
  --name hermes-issues --repo NousResearch/hermes-agent --scope issues
```

Poll an arbitrary JSON API:

```bash
python $HERMES_HOME/skills/devops/watchers/scripts/watch_http_json.py \
  --name api --url https://api.example.com/events \
  --id-field event_id --items-path data.events
```

## Wiring into cron

Ask the agent to schedule a cron job with a prompt like:

> Every 15 minutes, run `watch_rss.py --name hn --url https://news.ycombinator.com/rss`. If it prints anything, summarize the headlines and deliver them. If it prints nothing, stay silent.

The agent invokes the script via the terminal tool inside the cron job's agent loop; no changes to cron's built-in `--script` flag are needed.

## State files

Every watcher writes `$HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/<name>.json`. Inspect:

```bash
cat $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/hn.json
```

Force a replay (next run treated as first poll):

```bash
rm $HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/hn.json
```

## Writing your own

All three scripts use the same template: load watermark, fetch, diff, save, emit. `scripts/_watermark.py` is the shared helper; import it to get atomic writes + bounded ID set + first-run baseline for free. See any of the three reference scripts for how little boilerplate it takes.

## Common Pitfalls

1. **Printing a "no new items" header every tick.** Callers rely on empty stdout = silent. If you print anything on an empty delta, you spam the channel. The shipped scripts handle this; custom scripts must too.
2. **Expecting the first run to emit items.** It won't — first run records a baseline. If you need an initial digest, delete the state file after the first run or add a `--prime-with-latest N` flag in your own script.
3. **Unbounded watermark growth.** The shared helper caps at 500 IDs. Raise it for high-churn feeds; lower it on constrained filesystems.
4. **Putting the state dir where the agent's sandbox can't write.** `$HERMES_HOME/watcher-state/` is always writable. Docker/Modal backends may not see arbitrary host paths.

مجوز

مجوز اعلام‌شده: MIT

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Hermes Agent

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

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