PyPI Release & Download Monitor with n8n, Apify + Slack

Track PyPI releases & download spikes—then get instant Slack approvals with n8n

PyPI Release & Download Monitor with n8n, Apify + Slack automatically watches selected Python packages for new releases and download activity, scores each update using OpenAI, logs results to Google Sheets, and sends Slack approval alerts for high-priority items—plus Gmail digests and a weekly email report.

What this workflow does

• Runs daily (or manually) and also has a separate weekly schedule to produce a 7-day report.
• On each daily run, it starts an Apify actor to fetch PyPI package release + download stats.
• Waits and polls the Apify API until the actor run succeeds or fails.
• Downloads the Apify dataset results, removes invalid entries, and deduplicates already-seen package@version pairs using persisted workflow memory.
• Calculates a rule-based activity score, then uses OpenAI (via an LLM chain with structured JSON output) to generate a fit score, verdict, summary, and red flags.
• Blends rule + AI scores into a final tier, then upserts each record into Google Sheets keyed by package@version.
• Routes:
  • Hot items → Slack approval/dismiss review
  • Warm items → Gmail HTML digest
  • Cold items → kept in Sheets only
• For Slack hot reviews, writes the approval decision back to Google Sheets.
• On the weekly schedule, emails a 7-day summary report via Gmail.
• If execution fails, it formats error details and posts an alert to Slack.

Use cases

• Monitor critical Python dependencies for suspicious release/download surges.
• Maintain a lightweight PyPI “watchlist” with human-in-the-loop Slack approvals.
• Send daily digests and weekly summaries to engineering or security stakeholders.

Technical details

• Apify actor run + dataset download; polling via Apify API.
• OpenAI scoring with structured JSON output (LLM chain).
• Google Sheets upsert keyed by package@version and approval decision updates.
• Slack approval/dismiss workflow and failure alerts.
• Gmail HTML digests and weekly email report.
• Setup: add an Apify API token as an HTTP Header Auth credential.