Show HN: Radar – Open-Source GitHub Notifications for Slack

Note: 🚧 this is still in early development so it may be buggy, please create a Github issue with feedback / bug reports and we will get them resolved!

A Slack application that connects GitHub activity to your team's Slack workspace, delivering customizable notifications about Pull Requests, Issues, Discussions, etc. in near real-time.

Radar was built with inspiration from Toast, the Github Slack app, Graphite. I wanted something simpler and lighter than Graphite but with a few key features that Toast and Github app were missing. I built it to be more configurable and feature-rich yet still simple and fast.

• Smart Notifications: Routing based on user roles (author, reviewer, assignee)
• Real-time Delivery: Fast notifications from GitHub webhooks to Slack
• Full Event Support: PRs, issues, reviews, comments, discussions, and more
• Keyword-Based Notifications: Smart keyword matching (using AI 👀)
• Digest Notifications: Configurable scheduled summaries of pull requests activity
• Open Source Mode: Run self-hosted with full features enabled (no billing required)

• Next.js

• NestJS
• Better Auth
• Trigger.dev
• PostHog
• OpenAI

• Slack API
• GitHub API
• GitHub Webhooks

• Node.js 18+
• npm package manager
• Slack workspace with admin privileges
• GitHub account with access to repositories you want to track
• Docker and Docker Compose (optional, for containerized deployment)

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/zlwaterfield/radar.git cd radar

2. Install dependencies for both backend and frontend:

   # Install backend dependencies cd app npm install # Install frontend dependencies cd ../client npm install

3. Set up environment variables:

   Backend (app directory):

   cd app # Create .env file with your configuration # See Configuration section below for required variables

   Frontend (client directory):

   cd client # Create .env.local file with your configuration # See Configuration section below for required variables

4. Set up the database:

   cd app # Generate Prisma client npx prisma generate # Run database migrations npx prisma migrate dev

5. Run the applications:

   Start the backend (NestJS API):

   The API will be available at http://localhost:3000

   Start the frontend (Next.js app):

   The frontend will be available at http://localhost:3001

6. Set up Trigger.dev:

You'll need a Trigger account and to configure your environment variables.

6. Set up a tunnel for webhooks (recommended):

For local development, you'll need a public URL for GitHub webhooks and Slack events. We recommend using ngrok:

Copy the HTTPS URL provided by ngrok (e.g., https://abc123.ngrok.io) and use it for:

• GitHub webhook URLs
• Slack event subscriptions
• Update your environment variables accordingly

7. Run Trigger.dev:

   cd app npx trigger.dev@latest dev

See the documentation for detailed setup instructions including:

• Creating a Slack app
• Setting up GitHub authentication
• Open Source Mode - Run without billing/payments
• User and team settings

The application requires several environment variables to be set. See the two .env.example for a complete list with descriptions.

Key environment variables include:

• Slack API credentials
• GitHub API credentials
• Application settings
• Trigger credentials
• Payment settings (optional - set PAYMENT_DISABLED=true for open-source mode)

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.