Release Note Monitor

Release Note Monitor extracts stable GitHub release and release-note records from public Atom feeds for version and product-update monitoring. It is useful when you want a predictable feed of software releases without polling repository pages manually.

What it does

The Actor reads public GitHub release Atom feeds, validates and parses the feed, normalizes release metadata, and writes stable records to the default Apify dataset. It can include normalized release-note text and supports filtering controls intended for recurring monitoring.

Typical use cases include:

• tracking releases from important open-source projects;
• monitoring dependency or vendor updates;
• detecting new versions for internal engineering workflows;
• collecting release notes for changelog or research pipelines;
• scheduling release checks through Apify.

Quick start

1. Add one or more supported public GitHub release feed URLs to the Actor input.
2. Keep the default limits for a small first run.
3. Configure optional tag-prefix, prerelease, and release-body settings if needed.
4. Run the Actor and inspect the default dataset.
5. Confirm that release names, tags, links, timestamps, and body information match the source feed.
6. Once verified, schedule recurring runs or call the Actor through the Apify API.

The Input tab also provides request limits, retries, concurrency, timeout, proxy configuration, and maximum releases/body-size controls.

Output

Each dataset item represents a normalized GitHub release with stable source metadata. Depending on the configured input, records can include repository information, release identifiers, URLs, names, tags, publication/update timestamps, author data, prerelease status, normalized body text, and a SHA-256 body fingerprint. The dataset schema defines the exact output contract.

Results can be exported as JSON, CSV, or Excel or consumed directly through the Apify dataset API.

Scheduling and integrations

Use Apify schedules for periodic version monitoring. Dataset records can trigger webhooks or feed Make, Zapier, internal services, databases, notification systems, or other Actors.

Limitations

The Actor depends on GitHub's public Atom feed format and the releases exposed by that feed. It does not access private repositories or authenticated GitHub APIs. Upstream feed behavior can change, and release bodies may be truncated according to your configured output limit.

Pricing

See the Actor's Apify Store Pricing tab for the active pricing model and rates. Platform usage depends mainly on feed count, run frequency, and requested release/body volume. A small test run is the best way to estimate real cost before enabling recurring monitoring.