camelcamelcamel-alerts

CamelCamelCamel Alerts

Automatically monitor your CamelCamelCamel RSS feed for Amazon price drops and get notified on Telegram.

Quick Start

1. Get your RSS feed URL from CamelCamelCamel:

   • Go to https://camelcamelcamel.com/ and set up price alerts
   • Get your personal RSS feed URL (format: https://camelcamelcamel.com/alerts/YOUR_UNIQUE_ID.xml)

2. Create a cron job with YOUR feed URL (not someone else's!):

cron add \
  --job '{
    "name": "camelcamelcamel-monitor",
    "schedule": "0 */12 * * *",
    "task": "Monitor CamelCamelCamel price alerts",
    "command": "python3 /path/to/scripts/fetch_rss.py https://camelcamelcamel.com/alerts/YOUR_UNIQUE_ID.xml"
  }'

Important: Replace YOUR_UNIQUE_ID with your own feed ID from step 1. Each person needs their own feed URL!

3. Clawdbot will:
   • Fetch your feed every 4 hours
   • Detect new price alerts
   • Send you Telegram notifications

How It Works

The skill uses two components:

scripts/fetch_rss.py

• Fetches your CamelCamelCamel RSS feed
• Parses price alert items
• Compares against local cache to find new alerts
• Outputs JSON with new items detected
• Caches item hashes to avoid duplicate notifications

Cron Integration

• Runs on a schedule you define
• Triggers fetch_rss.py
• Can be configured to run hourly, every 4 hours, daily, etc.

Setup & Configuration

See SETUP.md for:

• How to get your CamelCamelCamel RSS feed URL
• Step-by-step cron configuration
• Customizing check frequency
• Cache management
• Troubleshooting

Alert Cache

The script maintains a cache at /tmp/camelcamelcamel/cache.json to track which alerts have been notified. This prevents duplicate notifications.

Clear the cache to re-test notifications:

rm /tmp/camelcamelcamel/cache.json

Notification Format

When a new price drop is detected, you'll receive a Telegram message like:

🛒 *Price Alert*

*PRODUCT NAME - $XX.XX (Down from $YY.YY)*

Current price: $XX.XX
Historical low: $ZZ.ZZ
Last checked: [timestamp]

View on Amazon: [link]

Customization

Check Frequency

Adjust the cron schedule (6th parameter in the schedule field):

• 0 * * * * → every hour
• 0 */4 * * * → every 4 hours (default)
• 0 */6 * * * → every 6 hours
• 0 0 * * * → daily

Message Format

Edit scripts/notify.sh to customize the Telegram message layout and emoji.

Technical Details

• Language: Python 3 (built-in libraries only)
• Cache: JSON file at /tmp/camelcamelcamel/cache.json
• Feed Format: Standard RSS/XML
• Dependencies: None beyond Python standard library
• Timeout: 10 seconds per feed fetch

Troubleshooting

If you're not receiving notifications:

1. Verify the feed URL works in your browser
2. Check the cron job exists: cron list
3. Test manually:

   python3 scripts/fetch_rss.py <YOUR_FEED_URL> /tmp/camelcamelcamel
   

4. Clear the cache to reset:

   rm /tmp/camelcamelcamel/cache.json
   

5. Check Telegram is configured in Clawdbot

See SETUP.md for more details.