GitHub Activity Tracker

A beautifully simple, entirely serverless AWS Lambda function that monitors a GitHub user account for new activity and sends visually rich, professionally formatted HTML email updates when public events (like commits, PRs, issues) are detected.

It dynamically pulls secrets from AWS SSM during execution, keeping credentials entirely safe and off your servers. Driven by an AWS EventBridge scheduler, this system requires zero operational overhead or constantly running servers.

Features

• Serverless & Stateless: Runs on AWS Lambda, scaling instantly and costing fractions of a cent per run.
• Automated Polling: Utilizes AWS EventBridge to wake up and poll the GitHub API every 30 minutes.
• Commit Drilldowns: Deeply integrates with the GitHub Compare API to pull full commit messages, author details, and short hashes when users push code.
• Secure Configuration: Retrieves .env equivalents (API keys, target email, GitHub username) securely from AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Parameter Store.
• Beautiful Emails: Constructs rich Apple-style HTML emails dispatched flawlessly via Resend.

AWS Architecture

  [ AWS EventBridge Scheduler ]
               |
               | Triggers every 30 mins
               v
     [ AWS Lambda Function ] ----------> [ AWS KMS (Decrypt Secrets) ]
           (tracker.js)      ----------> [ AWS SSM (Fetch API Keys) ]
               |
               | Poll public events
               v
         [ GitHub API ]
               |
               | If new events/commits found
               v
      [ Resend Email API ]
               |
               | Delivered to user
               v
         [ User Inbox ]

Deployment

Setup & Deployment

1. Install AWS SAM CLI: Make sure you have the AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) CLI installed.
2. Set up SSM Parameters: Create SecureString parameters in AWS Systems Manager mapping to your setup under the path /github-tracker/prod/:
   • /github-tracker/prod/resend-api-key
   • /github-tracker/prod/github-username
   • /github-tracker/prod/notify-email
3. Deploy using SAM: Run the standard deployment flow:

   sam build
   sam deploy --guided

   Note: Using AWS SAM means template.yaml and samconfig.toml are strictly required to define the architecture and remember deployment locations.

Project Structure

github-tracker/
├── src/                     # Lambda runtime code
│   ├── index.js             # Lambda handler (entry point)
│   ├── config.js            # SSM secrets + env config loader
│   ├── github.js            # GitHub API integration
│   ├── email.js             # HTML email builder + Resend dispatch
│   └── package.json         # Runtime dependencies (dotenv, resend)
├── standalone/
│   └── direct-deploy.js     # Single-file version for manual Lambda upload
├── assets/                  # Images for documentation
├── template.yaml            # AWS SAM infrastructure-as-code
├── samconfig.toml           # SAM deployment preferences
├── .sample.env              # Example environment variables
└── .gitignore

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI configured with valid credentials
• AWS SAM CLI installed
• A Resend account and API key
• Node.js 20.x

SSM Parameter Setup

Create three SecureString parameters in AWS Systems Manager:

aws ssm put-parameter --name "/github-tracker/prod/resend-api-key" \
  --value "re_your_key_here" --type SecureString

aws ssm put-parameter --name "/github-tracker/prod/github-username" \
  --value "your-github-username" --type SecureString

aws ssm put-parameter --name "/github-tracker/prod/notify-email" \
  --value "you@example.com" --type SecureString

Local Development

1. Copy the sample env file and fill in your values:

   cp .sample.env .env

2. Install dependencies:

   cd src && npm install

3. Invoke the handler locally:

   node -e "require('./src/index.js').handler({}, {})"

Note: When running locally, the code reads from .env directly. SSM is only used inside the Lambda runtime.

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 20.x (AWS Lambda)
IaC	AWS SAM / CloudFormation
Scheduler	AWS EventBridge
Secrets	AWS SSM Parameter Store + KMS
Email	Resend API
Data Source	GitHub Public Events API