GitHub new release notifications

If you want to find out how to watch a GitHub repository for new releases and just that, here is a very simple guide.

Motivation

I needed a way to get notified of new releases on selected GitHub repositories and just that. Watching a repository would instead give me too much information such as notifications on new issues and pull requests.

Solution overview

I use IFTTT to watch GitHub project releases atom feed. When something new appears, IFTTT will insert an entry into a to-do app, specifically Todoist.

Find out the Atom feed URL

The URLs are:

  • Releases: https://github.com/<user>/<project>/releases.atom
  • Tags: https://github.com/<user>/<project>/tags.atom

For example, the URL for NodeJS Node project releases is https://github.com/nodejs/node/releases.atom and URL for tags is https://github.com/nodejs/node/tags.atom.

Verify the URL via web browser. You should be seeing XML content.

Create an applet on IFTTT

Create an applet

Go to IFTTT to create an account if you do not already have one. IFTTT if this

Choose a service

IFTTT Choose a Service

Setup the trigger

Enter the Atom URL. IFTTT Complete trigger fields

Choose action service

For this I chose Todoist. You will need to create an account before using. IFTTT Choose action service

Configure the action

IFTTT then Todoist

Todoist allows you to store to-do tasks into Projects. Think of a project as just a folder or a category. When a new entry is created, URL to it will be included into the to-do task. If you want to set a reminder, you can enter that into the due date field. Example values are “today” and “tomorrow”.

Results

When there are new releases, they will appear like below. Todoist Software NodeJS