How to Monitor GitHub and GitLab RepositoriesAdvanced

9 min read

GitHub and GitLab publish Atom feeds for a repository's releases, tags and commits, and GitLab adds feeds for issues and merge requests. Point a PageCrawl Feed monitor at one of these addresses and each new entry reaches you as its own item, with a title and link. To watch one file, such as a changelog, monitor its raw text instead.

This guide covers public repositories on GitHub and GitLab.com, and self-hosted GitLab servers.

Which address should I monitor on GitHub?

Monitor an Atom feed for releases, tags or commits, and the raw address for a file's contents. Replace {owner}, {repo}, {branch} and {path} with the names from the repository's address, copied exactly. Feed addresses use the Feed option in PageCrawl, and a raw file uses Full Page Text.

To follow Address PageCrawl option
New releases, with release notes https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/releases.atom Feed
New tags https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/tags.atom Feed
Commits on the default branch https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commits.atom Feed
Commits on one branch https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{branch}.atom Feed
Commits that touch one file or folder https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{branch}/{path}.atom Feed
Commits by one person https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{branch}.atom?author={username} Feed
A file's contents https://raw.githubusercontent.com/{owner}/{repo}/{branch}/{path} Full Page Text

What each feed holds:

  • Releases carries the 10 or so newest entries, each with the release name, a link and the release notes.
  • Tags lists one entry per tag, often with nothing more than the tag name.
  • Commits carries about the 20 newest commits. GitHub shortens long commit titles to about 70 characters, and the message stays in the entry's text.
  • Branch names with dots or slashes work as they are, for example https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/commits/release/1.95.atom. A branch or path that does not exist returns a 404 error, so copy the names exactly.

For example, the commit feed for the Redis license file, https://github.com/redis/redis/commits/unstable/LICENSE.txt.atom, lists "Change license from BSD-3 to dual RSALv2+SSPLv1 (#13157)" from 20 March 2024 and "Adding AGPLv3 as a license option to Redis! (#13997)" from 1 May 2025.

Avoid monitoring the repository's home page itself. Its star, fork and issue counters and its relative dates change constantly, which makes a noisy monitor.

Which address should I monitor on GitLab?

GitLab follows the same pattern with its own addresses, and the project path can include nested groups, such as gitlab-org/ruby/gems/gitlab-exporter. Tags need ?format=atom, because the /-/tags.atom address redirects to the sign-in page. GitLab also publishes feeds for issues and merge requests, for one project or a whole group.

To follow Address PageCrawl option
New releases https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/releases.atom Feed
New tags https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/tags?format=atom Feed
Commits on the default branch https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/commits/HEAD?format=atom Feed
Commits on one branch https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/commits/{branch}?format=atom Feed
Commits that touch one file or folder https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/commits/{branch}/{path}?format=atom Feed
New issues https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/issues.atom Feed
New merge requests https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/merge_requests.atom Feed
Issues or merge requests across a group https://gitlab.com/groups/{group}/-/issues.atom or https://gitlab.com/groups/{group}/-/merge_requests.atom Feed
A file's contents https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/raw/{branch}/{path} Full Page Text

What each feed holds:

  • Releases includes every release, newest first, and the monitor's Track first setting keeps the newest ones, 10 by default. GitLab documents the feed in its guide to tracking releases with an RSS feed.
  • Commits carries about 40 entries, and many of them are merge commits.
  • Issues and merge requests are newest first and keep any list filters in the address. For example, https://gitlab.com/{group}/{project}/-/issues.atom?state=opened&label_name[]=bug follows only open issues labelled bug.

How do I set up a feed monitor?

Paste the feed address into Track New Page and click Load Page. PageCrawl recognizes the Atom feed, selects Feed and lists the entries it found, so you can confirm they are the right ones. Choose which changes alert you, then click Start Tracking. The first check saves the current entries as a baseline.

  1. Open Track New Page, choose Single URL and paste the address into Enter URL.
  2. Click Load Page. Under What to Track, Feed is selected, the panel shows Atom feed detected and the entries are listed below it.
  3. Set Track first to how many of the newest entries to keep. The default of 10 suits release and tag feeds. For a busy branch's commit feed, raise it where your plan allows or check more often: when more new commits land between two checks than the monitor keeps, the older ones are never reported.
  4. Under Alert me about:, Items added is always on. Leave Items removed off: each new entry pushes the oldest one out of the list, which counts as a removal. Turn on Content changes to also hear when an entry's title, or the opening of a GitHub release's notes, is edited.
  5. Pick a Check Frequency and the channels under Notify me via, then click Start Tracking.

The first check records the feed and sends nothing. After that, a later check that finds a new entry alerts you, so how soon you hear about a release depends on the check frequency. These feed checks run without a browser and take no screenshots.

A repository with no releases or tags yet has an empty feed. Track New Page then shows Feed is empty right now, and the monitor alerts you when the first entry appears.

You can also paste a GitHub or GitLab.com repository's Releases, Tags or Commits page, or a file's page, into Track New Page: PageCrawl follows the same feed or raw file.

How do I monitor a single file, such as a changelog?

Monitor the file's raw address with Full Page Text. The raw address serves the file as plain text, without the repository page around it, so each change shows exactly which lines were added or removed. Choose Everything as the content to monitor, because a raw file has no menus or footers to leave out.

  1. Build the raw address from the tables above, for example https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redis/redis/unstable/LICENSE.txt.
  2. Paste it into Enter URL and click Load Page.
  3. Under What to Track, choose Full Page Text, then choose Everything under Content to monitor:.
  4. Click Start Tracking.

Very large files are capped and only the beginning is kept, which suits changelogs that put the newest entries at the top. If you only need to know when a file changed, follow its commit feed instead (commits/{branch}/{path}.atom on GitHub): you get one item per commit, with the commit message.

Does the release feed include pre-releases?

Yes. GitHub's release feed also lists pre-releases, such as betas, release candidates and canary builds, and tags that have no release. A feed monitor set up in Track New Page alerts on each new one like any other entry. Entries run newest day first but not strictly in publish order, so the top entry is not always the newest stable release.

GitHub's https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest address opens the newest stable release, but it is a page, not a feed. GitHub's REST API also reports the latest release, but its rate limit for unauthenticated requests is 60 an hour per IP address, so the feed is the dependable source.

A feed monitor set up in Track New Page always alerts on Items added, so What matters: when to notify me and the minimum importance do not hold a new entry back. Those settings filter Full Page Text monitors instead, such as one on a project's raw CHANGELOG.md, as Reducing False Positives explains. Each feed alert lists the new entries by name, so a beta or release candidate is easy to spot.

How do I follow issues and pull requests?

On GitLab, monitor the project's issue or merge request feed from the table above with Feed. GitHub publishes no feed for issues, pull requests or security advisories, so use GitHub's own notifications there: open the repository's Watch menu, choose Custom and select the events you want, such as Issues or Pull requests.

GitHub describes each option in configuring your watch settings for an individual repository.

Can I create these monitors through the API or an AI assistant?

Yes. Send the feed address from the tables above as the URL and set the tracking mode to feed. For a raw file, send its raw address with fullpage, the default.

With the REST API, the /api/track-simple endpoint takes both fields:

curl -X POST "https://pagecrawl.io/api/track-simple" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://github.com/redis/redis/releases.atom",
    "tracking_mode": "feed"
  }'

With an AI assistant connected through the PageCrawl MCP server, give the feed address and ask for a feed, for example: "Monitor https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/-/releases.atom as a feed and alert me about new releases." The assistant sets tracking_mode to feed when it calls add-page-monitor.

To add several repositories at once with Bulk Add, paste the feed addresses, one per line. A batch applies the same settings to every address, so add feeds and raw files in separate batches.

Does this work with self-hosted GitLab or private repositories?

Self-hosted GitLab servers publish the same feed and raw addresses on their own domain, so replace gitlab.com with your server's address. This guide covers public repositories only. If a self-hosted server only answers visitors using a regular browser, the feed cannot be read, so monitor the project's Releases page with Full Page Text instead.

A feed link copied from GitLab while you are signed in can carry a token tied to your account, and GitLab's feed token documentation warns that anyone with your feed token can view your feed activity as if they were you, including confidential issues. For a public project, use the plain addresses above.

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