Open Source Releases Tracker

Monitor GitHub releases across multiple open source repositories in one run. Get version tags, changelogs, publish dates, asset download counts, and prerelease status — all structured and ready for downstream automation.

What does Open Source Releases Tracker do?

Open Source Releases Tracker calls the GitHub Releases API for each repository you specify and returns structured data per release: tag name, release notes (changelog), publish date, author, asset list metadata, total download counts, and whether the release is a prerelease or draft. Try it on any public GitHub repo — no token required for basic usage.

Runs on the Apify platform: schedule it to run daily, stream results to Slack or Notion via integrations, or trigger it from your CI pipeline via API.

Why use Open Source Releases Tracker?

• Dependency monitoring — Watch upstream libraries for breaking-change releases before they affect your project.
• Competitive intelligence — Track release cadence and changelog content of competing tools.
• Release automation — Trigger downstream actions (notifications, changelog summaries, deploy pipelines) when a new version lands.
• Security auditing — Detect patch releases that address CVEs across your dependency graph.
• Research & analytics — Aggregate download counts and release frequency across the open source ecosystem.

How to use Open Source Releases Tracker

1. Open the Input tab in Apify Console.
2. Add one or more repositories in owner/repo format (e.g. microsoft/vscode, facebook/react).
3. Set Max Releases Per Repo (default: 5). Increase to fetch historical releases.
4. Optionally set a Since Date (ISO format) to restrict results to recent releases only.
5. Toggle Include Prereleases if you want alpha/beta/RC versions.
6. Optionally provide a GitHub Token to raise your rate limit from 60 to 5000 requests/hour.
7. Click Start and view results in the Output tab.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
repositories	string[]	—	Required. List of owner/repo strings
maxReleasesPerRepo	integer	5	Max releases per repo (1–100)
includePrerelease	boolean	false	Include alpha, beta, RC versions
since	string	—	ISO date filter, e.g. 2024-01-01
githubToken	string	—	GitHub PAT for higher rate limits

Example input:

{
  "repositories": ["microsoft/vscode", "facebook/react", "tiangolo/fastapi"],
  "maxReleasesPerRepo": 3,
  "includePrerelease": false,
  "since": "2024-01-01"
}

Output

Each release is saved as a separate dataset item. You can download the dataset in JSON, CSV, HTML, or Excel format.

Example output item:

{
  "repo": "microsoft/vscode",
  "owner": "microsoft",
  "repo_name": "vscode",
  "tag_name": "1.89.0",
  "release_name": "April 2024",
  "published_at": "2024-05-02T19:00:00Z",
  "is_prerelease": false,
  "is_draft": false,
  "branch_or_tag": "main",
  "author": "bpasero",
  "changelog": "## Accessibility improvements\n\n...",
  "assets_count": 12,
  "total_downloads": 1820345,
  "release_url": "https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/releases/tag/1.89.0",
  "fetched_at": "2024-09-01T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Data table

Field	Description
repo	Full owner/repo string
owner	Repository owner (user or org)
repo_name	Repository name
tag_name	Git tag, e.g. v1.2.3
release_name	Human-readable release title
published_at	ISO 8601 publish timestamp
is_prerelease	true for alpha/beta/RC
is_draft	true for draft releases (skipped by default)
branch_or_tag	Target branch or commit SHA
author	GitHub login of release author
changelog	Release notes body (first 2000 chars)
assets_count	Number of binary assets attached
total_downloads	Sum of all asset download counts
release_url	Direct link to the GitHub release page
fetched_at	Timestamp when this data was collected

Pricing / Cost estimation

This Actor uses Pay-Per-Event billing at $0.002 per repository checked (regardless of how many releases are returned).

• 10 repositories → ~$0.02
• 100 repositories → ~$0.20
• 1,000 repositories → ~$2.00

Apify's free tier includes $5 of platform credit monthly, so small monitoring jobs (up to ~2,500 repos/month) run at no cost.

Tips

• Rate limits: Without a GitHub token the API allows 60 requests/hour. For large repo lists, provide a Personal Access Token (PAT) to raise the limit to 5,000/hour. Generate one at github.com/settings/tokens — no special scopes needed for public repos.
• Historical data: Set maxReleasesPerRepo to 100 and omit since to pull the full release history.
• Scheduling: Schedule the Actor to run daily with a since date set dynamically — use Apify's scheduled tasks to monitor for new releases automatically.
• Concurrency: The Actor fetches up to 5 repositories in parallel, respecting GitHub's rate limit headers automatically.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Is this legal? Yes. The GitHub Releases API is a public, officially documented endpoint. This Actor only reads publicly available release data and respects GitHub's rate limits.

What about private repositories? Private repos require a token with repo scope. Without a valid token, private repos will return a 403 and be skipped.

Known limitations: GitHub's API returns at most 100 releases per request. Repos with more than 100 releases will be capped at maxReleasesPerRepo (max 100).

For bugs or feature requests, open an issue in the Issues tab. Custom integrations or bulk monitoring solutions are available on request.

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Related actors

• GitHub Repo Stats — Star growth, forks, and contributors for the same repos you track releases on
• GitHub CI Monitor — CI/CD deployment frequency and failure rates for repositories you monitor releases on
• npm Package Trends — npm download spikes that often follow major open source releases

Feedback

If this actor helps your open source monitoring, a review helps others find it: Leave a review on Apify Store

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Keywords: open source releases tracker, GitHub release monitor, software version tracker, GitHub tags API, open source changelog, new release detector, dependency update tracker, software release calendar, GitHub releases scraper, version bump monitor, library release alerts, open source project updates, GitHub API releases, patch release tracker, security patch monitor