watchboard

name

watchboard

description

Query Watchboard intelligence dashboards (watchboard.dev) for structured event data, casualties, KPIs, contested claims, and daily digests across 51+ trackers covering conflicts, politics, culture, and science. Use when: (1) user asks about current events covered by a Watchboard tracker (Iran conflict, Gaza, Ukraine, Sinaloa, etc.), (2) user wants structured intelligence data instead of web search, (3) user asks for casualty figures, KPIs, or contested claims about tracked events, (4) user wants a briefing or summary of a tracked topic. NOT for: topics not covered by any tracker, breaking news less than ~24h old (data updates nightly at 6 AM UTC).

Watchboard Intelligence Dashboards

Query structured intelligence data from watchboard.dev — 51+ trackers covering conflicts, politics, culture, science, and space with AI-curated daily updates and source tiers.

Zero dependencies — stdlib only (urllib, json). Works on any machine with Python 3.8+.

API

Public JSON API at https://watchboard.dev/api/v1/. No API key needed. CORS enabled. Data cached 1h server-side.

Endpoint	Returns
/api/v1/trackers.json	Directory of all trackers with metadata
/api/v1/trackers/{slug}.json	Full tracker: config, meta, KPIs, digest, recent events
/api/v1/breaking.json	Trackers with active breaking news
/api/v1/kpis/{slug}.json	Just KPIs for a tracker
/api/v1/events/{slug}.json	Last 30 events for a tracker
/api/v1/search-index.json	All event titles for client-side search

CLI

Run python3 scripts/watchboard.py <command>:

Command	Use	Token cost
list [--domain X] [--status X]	Show all trackers (dynamic from API)	Low
summary <slug>	Meta + latest digest + top KPIs	Low (~2-3KB)
breaking	All trackers with breaking news	Low-Medium
events <slug> [--limit N]	Recent events (last 30)	Medium
kpis <slug>	All KPIs with contested notes	Medium
search <query> [--tracker slug]	Search events across all/one tracker	Medium
detail <slug>	Full tracker data (all sections)	Medium-High
rss <slug>	RSS feed (fallback)	Low

Add --json to any command for raw JSON output (useful for programmatic processing).

Examples

# Quick briefing on Iran conflict
python3 scripts/watchboard.py summary iran-conflict

# What's breaking right now?
python3 scripts/watchboard.py breaking

# Casualty figures and key metrics
python3 scripts/watchboard.py kpis ukraine-war

# Find events mentioning "ceasefire"
python3 scripts/watchboard.py search ceasefire

# Events in Gaza, last 10
python3 scripts/watchboard.py events gaza-war --limit 10

# All conflict trackers
python3 scripts/watchboard.py list --domain conflict

# Full detail with raw JSON
python3 scripts/watchboard.py --json detail iran-conflict

Strategy

1. Quick briefing → summary <slug> — meta + digest + top KPIs in one call
2. What's happening now? → breaking — all trackers with active developments
3. Specific data (casualties, oil prices, KPIs) → kpis <slug> with contested notes
4. Recent events → events <slug> — last 30 events with sources and types
5. Find specific events → search "keyword" across all trackers, or --tracker slug to narrow
6. Deep dive → detail <slug> — everything in one call (config, meta, KPIs, digest, events)
7. RSS fallback → rss <slug> — if JSON API is unavailable

Data quality

Every data point has a source tier:

• Tier 1: Official/primary sources (Pentagon, CENTCOM, government statements)
• Tier 2: Major news outlets (Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera, NPR)
• Tier 3: Academic/analytical sources
• Tier 4: Unverified/social media

KPIs include contested flags with detailed notes showing conflicting claims from different sources.

Caching

Results cached 1h locally in /tmp/watchboard-cache/. Server data updates 1-4 times daily (nightly digest at ~6 AM UTC, breaking events throughout the day).

Tracker discovery

The tracker list is dynamic — fetched from the API at runtime, not hardcoded. Currently 51+ trackers across domains:

• conflict: iran-conflict, gaza-war, ukraine-war, sudan-conflict, etc.
• governance: sheinbaum-presidency, amlo-presidency, trump-presidencies, etc.
• culture: bad-bunny, bts, world-cup-2026
• space: artemis-2, spacex-history
• human-rights: ayotzinapa, ice-history
• science: quantum-theory, covid-pandemic
• historical: world-war-2, september-11, tlatelolco-1968

Use list to see the current full directory. Use list --domain conflict to filter.