camelcamelcamel-alerts

name	camelcamelcamel-alerts
description	Monitor CamelCamelCamel price drop alerts via RSS and send Telegram notifications when items go on sale. Use when setting up automatic price tracking for Amazon products with CamelCamelCamel price 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.