ReguWatch — Daily Website Change Monitor (Text + Links)

A GitHub Actions–based watchdog for regulatory and standards websites.
Runs once per day, detects text changes and new/removed links, and creates both a Daily Summary (Markdown in the repo) and a Daily Issue (which triggers GitHub email/push notifications).

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✨ Features

• Daily run via GitHub Actions (cron)
• Detects text changes (compact diff with ±8 lines of context)
• Detects link changes (new and removed URLs listed)
• Generates a Markdown report: reports/YYYY-MM-DD/daily-summary.md
• Creates a Daily Issue: “ReguWatch Daily Summary YYYY-MM-DD”
• Zero install: manage monitors entirely through GitHub Issues (UI form)
• History: snapshots stored under /snapshots (tracked in Git)

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Set up the repo
   Add these files to your repository:

   • reguwatch.config.json
   • .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/reguwatch.yml
   • .github/workflows/reguwatch.yml
   • .github/scripts/check.py

2. Enable GitHub Actions

   • Go to Settings → Actions → General
   • Allow all actions
   • Set workflow permissions to Read and write permissions

3. Add monitors (your UI)

   • Go to Issues → New issue → "Add/Update a page to watch"
   • Fill in a Short name (e.g. “MDCG Guidance”) and the URL
   • To pause: remove the reguwatch label
   • To remove: close the issue

4. Run the first check manually

   • Go to Actions → ReguWatch (Daily) → Run workflow
   • Results:
     • reports/YYYY-MM-DD/daily-summary.md
     • A new Issue: “ReguWatch Daily Summary YYYY-MM-DD”

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🔔 Email Alerts (native via GitHub)

You will automatically receive an email whenever the Daily Summary Issue is created or updated:

1. Enable email notifications

   • Profile picture → Settings → Notifications
   • Tick “Send notifications to email”
   • Verify your primary email under Emails

2. Watch this repo

   • On the repo page: click Watch → All Activity

3. (Optional) Push on mobile

   • Install the GitHub Mobile App and enable notifications

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➕ Recommended Start Monitors

Here are some useful starting points (add one issue per URL):

• FDA Medical Devices — https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices
• FDA Guidance (Device Advice) — https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/device-advice-comprehensive-regulatory-assistance/guidance-documents-medical-devices-and-radiation-emitting-products
• MDCG Guidance — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/new-regulations/guidance-mdcg-endorsed-documents-and-other-guidance_en
• EU MDR – New Regulations — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/new-regulations_en
• EU Directives (Medical Devices) — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/directives_en
• EU In Vitro Diagnostics — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/vitro-diagnostics_en
• EU EUDAMED — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/eudamed_en
• EU Guidance & Useful Info — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/guidance-and-useful-information_en
• EU Coordination & Governance — https://health.ec.europa.eu/medical-devices-sector/coordination-and-governance_en
• IEC Just Published — https://webstore.iec.ch/en/just-published/
• ISO Insights (Standards World) — https://www.iso.org/insights/standards-world

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🧠 How It Works

• The workflow runs once per day (default: 05:00 UTC ≈ 07:00 Berlin during summer)
• For each monitored URL it saves snapshots under /snapshots:
  • HTML (.html)
  • Visible text (.txt)
  • Links (.links.json)
• Comparison logic:
  • Text diff (compact unified diff, max ~100 lines)
  • Links: lists new and removed URLs
• Outputs:
  • Markdown report under reports/YYYY-MM-DD/daily-summary.md
  • Daily Issue with the same content (triggers email/push)

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⚙️ Configuration

The configuration is stored in reguwatch.config.json.

Elements explained:

• profile: selects which profile to use (e.g. community)
• max_monitors: maximum number of watch issues to include
• min_interval_minutes: minimum time gap between checks for the same URL
• checks_per_month_cap: maximum number of checks allowed per month (safety cap)
• webhook_alert_cap_per_month: maximum number of webhook alerts per month
• notifications:
  • use_github_issues: whether to post daily summaries as GitHub Issues
  • webhook_url: optional URL to send alerts to (Slack, Teams, etc.)
• macros: optional filters (e.g. CSS selectors or regex to narrow what is compared)

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🧩 File Structure

reguwatch.config.json .github/ ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ reguwatch.yml scripts/ check.py workflows/ reguwatch.yml reports/ YYYY-MM-DD/ daily-summary.md ← generated daily snapshots/ .html .txt .links.json state/ last_run.json monthly_counters.json

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📥 How to Fork & Use ReguWatch (for your own org)

1. Fork the repo

   • Click Fork (top-right) → choose your account/org
   • Keep it public if you want to share; private if it's internal

2. Enable GitHub Actions in your fork

   • Go to Settings → Actions → General
   • Allow all actions
   • Workflow permissions → Read and write permissions

3. (Optional) Adjust the schedule

   • Open .github/workflows/reguwatch.yml
   • Edit the cron (default 0 5 * * * = 05:00 UTC ≈ 07:00 Berlin in summer)
   • Commit changes

4. Add your monitored pages via Issues (UI)

   • Go to Issues → New issue → "Add/Update a page to watch"
   • Fill in Short name + URL (one page per issue)
   • Pause by removing the reguwatch label; remove by closing the issue

5. Run the first check

   • Go to Actions → ReguWatch (Daily) → Run workflow
   • After it finishes you'll see:
     • reports/YYYY-MM-DD/daily-summary.md (Markdown report)
     • An Issue "ReguWatch Daily Summary YYYY-MM-DD"

6. Turn on email notifications (so you get the daily mail)

   • Profile → Settings → Notifications → Send notifications to email
   • On your fork: click Watch → All activity

7. Keep your fork updated

   • On GitHub: Sync fork (button near the top of your repo) — or
   • Locally:

     git remote add upstream https://github.com/rlwadh/ReguWatch.git
     git fetch upstream
     git merge upstream/main
     git push

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🤝 Contributing / Improving ReguWatch

We welcome improvements that keep the tool simple, reliable, and audit-friendly.

Good first contributions

• New recommended sources (FDA/MDCG/EMA/ISO/IEC/etc.) for the README
• Small UX fixes to the Daily Summary (phrasing, links)
• Noise filters that ignore non-semantic changes (JS hashes, counters, survey overlays)
• Documentation tweaks (README clarity, step screenshots)

How to propose changes

1. Open an Issue describing the problem/idea and why it helps (compliance value, noise reduction, etc.)
2. Fork and create a feature branch: feat/<brief-name>
3. Keep PRs small & focused (≤ ~200 lines if possible)
4. Include tests-by-usage: show a before/after snippet of a real page or a sample output from your run
5. Follow the existing style (plain Python, minimal deps, clear comments)
6. PR template checklist:
   • Keeps daily workflow simple and deterministic
   • Doesn't leak secrets / PII
   • Keeps emails compact (no giant diffs)
   • Backwards compatible (no breaking paths)
   • Documented in README if user-visible

Non-goals (usually out of scope)

• Heavy crawling/scraping beyond a single page per monitor
• Executing JavaScript or headless browsers (keeps Actions light/fast)
• Proprietary integrations that require paid keys (we stay pure OSS)

Code of Conduct

Be kind, assume good intent, and prioritize clarity for regulated environments.

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🤝 Contributing

PRs and issues are welcome! When adding new sources, please use clear short names and always the canonical URL.

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❤️ Support Our Kindergarten Project

If ReguWatch is useful to you, please consider supporting the Bildungswerk für Kinder und nachhaltiges Lernen (BKNL): • Donation link: 👉 Donate here : https://bknl.de Every contribution helps us fund local educational projects for children. Thank you! 🙏

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📜 License

Apache-2.0 – see LICENSE.