Feature: Real-Time GitHub Activity Notifications via Webhooks

[Jai-Shankar1033]

What I noticed

I've been using GitHub Tracker for a while and really like how it lets you monitor GitHub users. But I noticed one thing — right now you have to manually refresh to see if a tracked user did something new. There's no way to know instantly when they push code, open a PR, or create an issue.

I think adding GitHub Webhook support would fix this completely.

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What I'm proposing

When a tracked user does something on GitHub (push, PR, issue, release), GitHub automatically sends a notification to our backend. We then show it as a real-time alert in the UI — like a notification bell in the navbar, similar to how GitHub itself works.

No more manual refreshing. The app tells you when something happens.

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🛠️ Tech Implementation Plan

Backend (backend/):

// New route: backend/routes/webhook.js
router.post('/github', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), (req, res) => {
  const sig = req.headers['x-hub-signature-256'];
  const payload = req.body;
  // verify HMAC signature
  // parse event type from req.headers['x-github-event']
  // emit to connected clients via socket.io
});

Frontend (src/):

• New component: NotificationBell.tsx in src/components/
• Socket.io client: listen for github-event emissions
• Show toast using existing UI library (MUI Snackbar)

Environment Variables needed:

GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your_secret_here

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What needs to be built

Backend

• New route POST /api/webhooks/github to receive GitHub webhook payloads
• HMAC SHA-256 signature validation via x-hub-signature-256 header
• Handle event types: push, pull_request, issues, release
• Emit events to frontend via Socket.io
• Store last 50 notifications per user in MongoDB

Frontend

• NotificationBell.tsx component in navbar with unread count badge
• Socket.io client listening for live events
• Notification dropdown with event type, repo name, timestamp
• Mark as read on click
• Toast popup via MUI Snackbar (already in the stack)

Config

• GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET added to .env and .env.example

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🔗 References

• GitHub Webhooks Docs
• Validating webhook deliveries
• Socket.io Docs

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I'd love to work on this if maintainers are open to it. Happy to discuss the approach before starting. 🙌