camelcamelcamel-alerts

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!):

```bash
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](references/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:
```bash
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**:
   ```bash
   python3 scripts/fetch_rss.py <YOUR_FEED_URL> /tmp/camelcamelcamel
   ```
4. **Clear the cache** to reset:
   ```bash
   rm /tmp/camelcamelcamel/cache.json
   ```
5. **Check Telegram** is configured in Clawdbot

See [SETUP.md](references/SETUP.md) for more details.