topic-monitor

Q: How do I install topic-monitor?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/sundial-org/awesome-openclaw-skills --skill topic-monitor in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/topic-monitor/ (personal) or .claude/skills/topic-monitor/ (project).

by sundial-orgDevOps & Cloud

Monitor topics of interest and proactively alert when important developments occur. Use when user wants automated monitoring of specific subjects (e.g., product releases, price changes, news topics, technology updates). Supports scheduled web searches, AI-powered importance scoring, smart alerts vs weekly digests, and memory-aware contextual summaries.

Installs: 596
Last 24h: —
Trending rank: —
Security: Not audited

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/sundial-org/awesome-openclaw-skills --skill topic-monitor

01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads topic-monitor automatically when relevant.
03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

Topic Monitor

Monitor what matters. Get notified when it happens.

Topic Monitor transforms your assistant from reactive to proactive by continuously monitoring topics you care about and intelligently alerting you only when something truly matters.

Core Capabilities

Topic Configuration - Define subjects with custom parameters
Scheduled Monitoring - Automated searches at configurable intervals
AI Importance Scoring - Smart filtering: immediate alert vs digest vs ignore
Contextual Summaries - Not just links—meaningful summaries with context
Weekly Digest - Low-priority findings compiled into readable reports
Memory Integration - References your past conversations and interests

First Run

When you first use Topic Monitor, run the interactive setup wizard:

python3 scripts/setup.py

The wizard will guide you through:

Topics - What subjects do you want to monitor?
Search queries - How to search for each topic
Keywords - What terms indicate relevance
Frequency - How often to check (hourly/daily/weekly)
Importance threshold - When to send alerts (low/medium/high)
Weekly digest - Compile non-urgent findings into a summary

The wizard creates config.json with your preferences. You can always edit it later or use manage_topics.py to add/remove topics.

Example session:

🔍 Topic Monitor - Setup Wizard

What topics do you want to monitor?
  > AI Model Releases
  > Security Vulnerabilities
  > 

--- Topic 1/2: AI Model Releases ---
  Search query for 'AI Model Releases' [AI Model Releases news updates]: new AI model release announcement
  Keywords to watch for in 'AI Model Releases'?
  > GPT, Claude, Llama, release

--- Topic 2/2: Security Vulnerabilities ---
  Search query for 'Security Vulnerabilities' [Security Vulnerabilities news updates]: CVE critical vulnerability patch
  Keywords to watch for in 'Security Vulnerabilities'?
  > CVE, vulnerability, critical, patch

How often should I check for updates?
  1. hourly
  2. daily *
  3. weekly

✅ Setup Complete!

Quick Start

Already know what you're doing? Here's the manual approach:

# Initialize config from template
cp config.example.json config.json

# Add a topic
python3 scripts/manage_topics.py add "Product Updates" \
  --keywords "release,update,patch" \
  --frequency daily \
  --importance medium

# Test monitoring (dry run)
python3 scripts/monitor.py --dry-run

# Set up cron for automatic monitoring
python3 scripts/setup_cron.py

Topic Configuration

Each topic has:

name - Display name (e.g., "AI Model Releases")
query - Search query (e.g., "new AI model release announcement")
keywords - Relevance filters (["GPT", "Claude", "Llama", "release"])
frequency - hourly, daily, weekly
importance_threshold - high (alert immediately), medium (alert if important), low (digest only)
channels - Where to send alerts (["telegram", "discord"])
context - Why you care (for AI contextual summaries)

Example config.json

{
  "topics": [
    {
      "id": "ai-models",
      "name": "AI Model Releases",
      "query": "new AI model release GPT Claude Llama",
      "keywords": ["GPT", "Claude", "Llama", "release", "announcement"],
      "frequency": "daily",
      "importance_threshold": "high",
      "channels": ["telegram"],
      "context": "Following AI developments for work",
      "alert_on": ["model_release", "major_update"]
    },
    {
      "id": "tech-news",
      "name": "Tech Industry News",
      "query": "technology startup funding acquisition",
      "keywords": ["startup", "funding", "Series A", "acquisition"],
      "frequency": "daily",
      "importance_threshold": "medium",
      "channels": ["telegram"],
      "context": "Staying informed on tech trends",
      "alert_on": ["major_funding", "acquisition"]
    },
    {
      "id": "security-alerts",
      "name": "Security Vulnerabilities",
      "query": "CVE critical vulnerability security patch",
      "keywords": ["CVE", "vulnerability", "security", "patch", "critical"],
      "frequency": "hourly",
      "importance_threshold": "high",
      "channels": ["telegram", "email"],
      "context": "DevOps security monitoring",
      "alert_on": ["critical_cve", "zero_day"]
    }
  ],
  "settings": {
    "digest_day": "sunday",
    "digest_time": "18:00",
    "max_alerts_per_day": 5,
    "deduplication_window_hours": 72,
    "learning_enabled": true
  }
}

Scripts

manage_topics.py

Manage research topics:

# Add topic
python3 scripts/manage_topics.py add "Topic Name" \
  --query "search query" \
  --keywords "word1,word2" \
  --frequency daily \
  --importance medium \
  --channels telegram

# List topics
python3 scripts/manage_topics.py list

# Edit topic
python3 scripts/manage_topics.py edit eth-price --frequency hourly

# Remove topic
python3 scripts/manage_topics.py remove eth-price

# Test topic (preview results without saving)
python3 scripts/manage_topics.py test eth-price

monitor.py

Main monitoring script (run via cron):

# Normal run (alerts + saves state)
python3 scripts/monitor.py

# Dry run (no alerts, shows what would happen)
python3 scripts/monitor.py --dry-run

# Force check specific topic
python3 scripts/monitor.py --topic eth-price

# Verbose logging
python3 scripts/monitor.py --verbose

How it works:

Reads topics due for checking (based on frequency)
Searches using web-search-plus or built-in web_search
Scores each result with AI importance scorer
High-importance → immediate alert
Medium-importance → saved for digest
Low-importance → ignored
Updates state to prevent duplicate alerts

digest.py

Generate weekly digest:

# Generate digest for current week
python3 scripts/digest.py

# Generate and send
python3 scripts/digest.py --send

# Preview without sending
python3 scripts/digest.py --preview

Output format:

# Weekly Research Digest - [Date Range]

## 🔥 Highlights

- **AI Models**: Claude 4.5 released with improved reasoning
- **Security**: Critical CVE patched in popular framework

## 📊 By Topic

### AI Model Releases
- [3 findings this week]

### Security Vulnerabilities
- [1 finding this week]

## 💡 Recommendations

Based on your interests, you might want to monitor:
- "Kubernetes security" (mentioned 3x this week)

setup_cron.py

Configure automated monitoring:

# Interactive setup
python3 scripts/setup_cron.py

# Auto-setup with defaults
python3 scripts/setup_cron.py --auto

# Remove cron jobs
python3 scripts/setup_cron.py --remove

Creates cron entries:

# Topic Monitor - Hourly topics
0 * * * * cd /path/to/skills/topic-monitor && python3 scripts/monitor.py --frequency hourly

# Topic Monitor - Daily topics  
0 9 * * * cd /path/to/skills/topic-monitor && python3 scripts/monitor.py --frequency daily

# Topic Monitor - Weekly digest
0 18 * * 0 cd /path/to/skills/topic-monitor && python3 scripts/digest.py --send

AI Importance Scoring

The scorer uses multiple signals to decide alert priority:

Scoring Signals

HIGH priority (immediate alert):

Major breaking news (detected via freshness + keyword density)
Price changes >10% (for finance topics)
Product releases matching your exact keywords
Security vulnerabilities in tools you use
Direct answers to specific questions you asked

MEDIUM priority (digest-worthy):

Related news but not urgent
Minor updates to tracked products
Interesting developments in your topics
Tutorial/guide releases
Community discussions with high engagement

LOW priority (ignore):

Duplicate news (already alerted)
Tangentially related content
Low-quality sources
Outdated information
Spam/promotional content

Learning Mode

When enabled (learning_enabled: true), the system:

Tracks which alerts you interact with
Adjusts scoring weights based on your behavior
Suggests topic refinements
Auto-adjusts importance thresholds

Learning data stored in .learning_data.json (privacy-safe, never shared).

Memory Integration

Topic Monitor connects to your conversation history:

Example alert:

🔔 Dirac Live Update

Version 3.8 released with the room correction improvements you asked about last week.

Context: You mentioned struggling with bass response in your studio. This update includes new low-frequency optimization.

[Link] | [Full details]

How it works:

Reads references/memory_hints.md (create this file)
Scans recent conversation logs (if available)
Matches findings to past context
Generates personalized summaries

memory_hints.md (optional)

Help the AI connect dots:

# Memory Hints for Topic Monitor

## AI Models
- Using Claude for coding assistance
- Interested in reasoning improvements
- Comparing models for different use cases

## Security
- Running production Kubernetes clusters
- Need to patch critical CVEs quickly
- Interested in zero-day disclosures

## Tech News
- Following startup ecosystem
- Interested in developer tools space
- Tracking potential acquisition targets

Alert Channels

Requires OpenClaw message tool:

{
  "channels": ["telegram"],
  "telegram_config": {
    "chat_id": "@your_username",
    "silent": false,
    "effects": {
      "high_importance": "🔥",
      "medium_importance": "📌"
    }
  }
}

Discord

Webhook-based:

{
  "channels": ["discord"],
  "discord_config": {
    "webhook_url": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/...",
    "username": "Research Bot",
    "avatar_url": "https://..."
  }
}

Email

SMTP or API:

{
  "channels": ["email"],
  "email_config": {
    "to": "you@example.com",
    "from": "research@yourdomain.com",
    "smtp_server": "smtp.gmail.com",
    "smtp_port": 587
  }
}

Advanced Features

Alert Conditions

Fine-tune when to alert:

{
  "alert_on": [
    "price_change_10pct",
    "keyword_exact_match",
    "source_tier_1",
    "high_engagement"
  ],
  "ignore_sources": [
    "spam-site.com",
    "clickbait-news.io"
  ],
  "boost_sources": [
    "github.com",
    "arxiv.org",
    "official-site.com"
  ]
}

Regex Patterns

Match specific patterns:

{
  "patterns": [
    "version \\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+",
    "\\$\\d{1,3}(,\\d{3})*",
    "CVE-\\d{4}-\\d+"
  ]
}

Rate Limiting

Prevent alert fatigue:

{
  "settings": {
    "max_alerts_per_day": 5,
    "max_alerts_per_topic_per_day": 2,
    "quiet_hours": {
      "start": "22:00",
      "end": "08:00"
    }
  }
}

State Management

.research_state.json

Tracks:

Last check time per topic
Alerted URLs (deduplication)
Importance scores history
Learning data (if enabled)

Example:

{
  "topics": {
    "eth-price": {
      "last_check": "2026-01-28T22:00:00Z",
      "last_alert": "2026-01-28T15:30:00Z",
      "alerted_urls": [
        "https://example.com/eth-news-1"
      ],
      "findings_count": 3,
      "alerts_today": 1
    }
  },
  "deduplication": {
    "url_hash_map": {
      "abc123": "2026-01-28T15:30:00Z"
    }
  }
}

.findings/ directory

Stores digest-worthy findings:

.findings/
├── 2026-01-22_eth-price.json
├── 2026-01-24_fm26-patches.json
└── 2026-01-27_ai-breakthroughs.json

Best Practices

Start conservative - Set importance_threshold: medium initially, adjust based on alert quality
Use context field - Helps AI generate better summaries
Refine keywords - Add negative keywords to filter noise: "keywords": ["AI", "-clickbait", "-spam"]
Enable learning - Improves over time based on your behavior
Review digest weekly - Don't ignore the digest—it surfaces patterns
Combine with personal-analytics - Get topic recommendations based on your chat patterns

Integration with Other Skills

web-search-plus

Automatically uses intelligent routing:

Product/price topics → Serper
Research topics → Tavily
Company/startup discovery → Exa

personal-analytics

Suggests topics based on conversation patterns:

"You've asked about Rust 12 times this month. Want me to monitor 'Rust language updates'?"

Privacy & Security

All data local - No external services except search APIs
State files gitignored - Safe to use in version-controlled workspace
Memory hints optional - You control what context is shared
Learning data stays local - Never sent to APIs

Troubleshooting

No alerts being sent:

Check cron is running: crontab -l
Verify channel config (Telegram chat ID, Discord webhook)
Run with --dry-run --verbose to see scoring

Too many alerts:

Increase importance_threshold
Add rate limiting
Refine keywords (add negative filters)
Enable learning mode

Missing important news:

Decrease importance_threshold
Increase check frequency
Broaden keywords
Check .research_state.json for deduplication issues

Digest not generating:

Verify .findings/ directory exists and has content
Check digest cron schedule
Run manually: python3 scripts/digest.py --preview

Example Workflows

Track Product Release

python3 scripts/manage_topics.py add "iPhone 17 Release" \
  --query "iPhone 17 announcement release date" \
  --keywords "iPhone 17,Apple event,September" \
  --frequency daily \
  --importance high \
  --channels telegram \
  --context "Planning to upgrade from iPhone 13"

Monitor Competitor

python3 scripts/manage_topics.py add "Competitor Analysis" \
  --query "CompetitorCo product launch funding" \
  --keywords "CompetitorCo,product,launch,Series,funding" \
  --frequency weekly \
  --importance medium \
  --channels discord,email

Research Topic

python3 scripts/manage_topics.py add "Quantum Computing Papers" \
  --query "quantum computing arxiv" \
  --keywords "quantum,qubit,arxiv" \
  --frequency weekly \
  --importance low \
  --channels email

Credits

Built for ClawHub. Uses web-search-plus skill for intelligent search routing.

FAQ

What does the topic-monitor skill do?

How do I install topic-monitor?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/sundial-org/awesome-openclaw-skills --skill topic-monitor in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/topic-monitor/ (personal) or .claude/skills/topic-monitor/ (project).

Which AI agents can use topic-monitor?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is topic-monitor safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains topic-monitor?

It is published by sundial-org in sundial-org/awesome-openclaw-skills. It has 596 recorded installs.