Aztec Watcher

npm release monitor for developers building on Aztec.

Polls the registry and sends a single grouped Slack notification when a new version drops.

---

Setup

1. Fork and clone

Fork this repo on GitHub (click the Fork button), then:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/aztec-watcher.git
cd aztec-watcher
npm install

2. Create a Slack webhook

1. Go to api.slack.com/apps > Create New App > From scratch
2. Name it (e.g. aztec-watcher), pick your workspace, click Create App
3. Left sidebar > Incoming Webhooks > toggle ON
4. Add New Webhook to Workspace > pick a channel > Allow
5. Copy the webhook URL

3. Run the setup wizard

npm run build
node dist/cli/index.js init

┌  aztec-watcher
│
◆  What are you building?
│  ● dApp / frontend       aztec.js, accounts, wallets, pxe
│  ○ Smart contract        aztec.js, noir-contracts, simulator
│  ○ Wallet integration    accounts, wallets, wallet-sdk, pxe
│  ○ Node / validator      aztec-node, sequencer, validator, p2p
│  ○ Faucet / tooling      aztec.js, accounts, cli, builder
│
◆  6 packages pre-selected. Want to see them?
│  Yes
│
●  @aztec/aztec.js   (Primary client SDK)
│  @aztec/accounts   (Schnorr/ECDSA account contracts)
│  @aztec/wallets    (Embedded wallet)
│  @aztec/pxe        (Private eXecution Environment)
│  @aztec/stdlib     (JS types and helpers)
│  @aztec/wallet-sdk (dApp wallet integration SDK)
│
│  You can add or remove packages later in ./aztec-watcher.config.yaml
│
◆  Which releases do you want to track?
│  ○ Stable only             latest tag, fewer notifications
│  ● Release candidates      rc tag, know before stable lands
│  ○ Both stable and RC      latest + rc tags
│  ○ Everything              latest, rc, devnet, nightly
│
✓  Config saved. Watching 6 packages.
│
◆  Want to test your Slack webhook now?
│  Yes
│
◆  Paste your Slack webhook URL (only used for this test, not saved anywhere)
│  https://hooks.slack.com/services/...
│
◐  Sending test notification...
✓  Test notification sent. Check your Slack channel.
│
◇  Next: commit and push your config
│    git add aztec-watcher.config.yaml data/state.json && git commit -m "configure aztec-watcher" && git push
│
◇  Add your Slack webhook as a GitHub secret
│    Repo > Settings > Secrets > Actions > SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
│
└  You only get notified when a version actually changes.

The webhook URL you paste during the test is used once and discarded. It is never saved to any file.

4. Push

git add aztec-watcher.config.yaml data/state.json
git commit -m "configure aztec-watcher"
git push

5. Add the Slack secret

On your repo: Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions > New repository secret

Name	Value
SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL	The webhook URL from step 2

6. Enable GitHub Actions

Actions tab > click "I understand my workflows, go ahead and enable them".

That's it. The workflow checks every 15 minutes. When a version changes, you get a Slack message:

Aztec 4.1.2-rc.1

@aztec/aztec.js   4.1.1-rc.1 -> 4.1.2-rc.1
@aztec/accounts   4.1.1-rc.1 -> 4.1.2-rc.1
@aztec/wallets    4.1.1-rc.1 -> 4.1.2-rc.1
@aztec/pxe        4.1.1-rc.1 -> 4.1.2-rc.1

npm install @aztec/aztec.js@rc @aztec/accounts@rc @aztec/wallets@rc @aztec/pxe@rc

---

How it works

1. Every 15 minutes, GitHub Actions runs aztec-watcher run
2. Polls the npm registry for every package in your config
3. Compares versions against data/state.json
4. If anything changed, groups updates into one Slack message per release (Aztec is a monorepo, 60+ packages bump at once, you get one message not 60)
5. Commits updated state.json back to the repo
6. If Slack is unreachable, state is not saved. Next run retries the same notification.

---

Custom packages

Edit aztec-watcher.config.yaml directly:

packages:
  - name: "@aztec/aztec.js"
    tags: [rc, latest]
  - name: "@aztec/accounts"
    tags: [rc, latest]
    check_schnorr_class_id: true
  - name: "@aztec/pxe"
    tags: [rc, latest]

Any npm package works, not just Aztec:

packages:
  - name: "viem"
    tags: [latest]
  - name: "@openzeppelin/contracts"
    tags: [latest]

Full package list: src/data/packages.ts

---

Running locally

export SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL="https://hooks.slack.com/services/..."
npm run build
node dist/cli/index.js run

Crontab (every 15 min):

*/15 * * * * cd /path/to/aztec-watcher && SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=... node dist/cli/index.js run >> ~/.aztec-watcher.log 2>&1

---

Security

• Config uses ${ENV_VAR} placeholders. No secrets in the repo.
• The webhook URL pasted during setup test is used once and discarded.
• Only connects to registry.npmjs.org and hooks.slack.com.
• No server, no database, no third-party service.

---

License

MIT