GitHub Releases Monitor: New Repo Releases

GitHub release notifications for the repositories you already depend on. Paste owner/repo (or a github.com URL) and get one row per public release: tag, name, published date, author, and notes. Turn on "only new since last run" to track new versions of github repos on a schedule, or use it as dependency release alerts for a watchlist. No GitHub token required. You pay per release returned; a quiet day costs only the start fee.

This reads GitHub's public releases atom feed at request time. If you add your own token, it switches to GitHub's REST releases list (higher rate limit). It does not scrape HTML and it never stores your token.

Who it's for

• Platform and security teams who want GitHub release notifications when a pinned CLI, action, or library ships a new tag.
• SRE and dependency owners who need dependency release alerts without polling every repo in a browser.
• Agents and n8n/Make/Clay flows that should track new versions of github repos as structured rows.

Why this one

• Works without a token. The public releases.atom feed is enough for Apify's Try-it prefill and for light watchlists.
• Optional buyer token. Your own GitHub personal access token (secret input) switches to the REST API at 5,000 requests/hour. Empty token stays on the atom feed. The token is never written to the dataset.
• Honest prerelease field. With a token, isPrerelease is GitHub's own flag. On the atom feed it is true only when the tag itself is unambiguous (-rc, -beta, -alpha, …); otherwise it is null, never guessed.
• Only-new monitoring. Tick the checkbox and you are billed only for repo + tag pairs this watchlist has not returned before.

What you get

One dataset row per release by default ("One row per release" is on):

Field	Meaning
repo	Canonical owner/repo
tag	Git tag
name	Release title
publishedAt	When GitHub published it
isPrerelease	See above
author	Release author login / atom name
notes	Release body as plain text, first 1,000 characters
releaseUrl	GitHub release page
route	atom or api

query and scrapedAt are on every row. With monitoring on, isNew and firstSeenAt say whether that tag is new to the watchlist.

A repository that does not exist, or that has no public releases in the window, comes back as "found": false (NOT_FOUND) and is never charged. A monitoring run that finds nothing new is not charged for releases.

How to use GitHub Releases Monitor: New Repo Releases

1. In the Apify Console. Open the actor page and click Start — the repos field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found.
2. Via the API. Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token:

   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~github-releases-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"repos":["cli/cli"]}'
   

3. On a schedule. Save this actor as an Apify Task with the input you want, then add a Schedule (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required.

Input

{
  "repos": [
    "cli/cli"
  ]
}

One per line: owner/repo or a github.com URL. Uses the public releases atom feed with no token. Add your own GitHub token below to switch to the REST API (5,000 requests/hour). Accepted formats: cli/cli, https://github.com/cli/cli.

Output

query	found	status	releaseCount	releases	repo	tag	name	publishedAt	isPrerelease	author	notes	releaseUrl	route	isNew	firstSeenAt	scrapedAt
cli/cli	true	OK		<all releases (full list)>							<release notes (first 1,000 characters)>			<is this release new?>		1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

Example runs

Three inputs that need no credentials of any kind and return rows as they stand. Paste one into the Input tab and press Start.

1. Watch GitHub CLI releases (last 30 days, public atom feed)

{
  "repos": ["cli/cli"]
}

2. Track two public repos in one run

{
  "repos": ["cli/cli", "sindresorhus/got"],
  "sinceDays": 90
}

3. Only-new GitHub release notifications on a schedule

{
  "repos": ["cli/cli"],
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true,
  "sinceDays": 30
}

Pricing

• Release returned: $2 per 1,000 releases

Plus a $0.00005 start fee per run. Each event above is billed independently, only when it actually returns data — misses (found:false) are never charged.

Charged once per release row returned. A repository with no matching releases, or a monitoring run with nothing new, is never charged.

Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent

This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token.

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~github-releases-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"repos":["cli/cli"]}'

n8n. Add an HTTP Request node: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~github-releases-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body Content Type JSON, JSON Body {"repos":["cli/cli"]} (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value).

Clay. Add an "HTTP API" column: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~github-releases-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body {"repos":["{{repository}}"]}, mapping the row's repository into the repos array.

MCP. In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "GitHub new release monitor by repo" — the agent will find and run this actor.

vs. the alternatives

Store search for a dedicated GitHub release monitor is empty. Bulk GitHub scrapers dump stars, issues, or profile HTML. This actor is a release monitor: you name the repos, you get new tags, and a scheduled run bills only what is new.

FAQ

Do I need a GitHub token? No. The default path is the public atom feed. Add a token only if you watch many repos and hit GitHub's anonymous 60 requests/hour ceiling.

Will a missing repository fail the run? No. It is a NOT_FOUND row (free). Same if the repository has no public releases.

Are prereleases included? Not by default. Turn on "Include prereleases" to keep them.