Guides · GitHub

Get a Mac notification for GitHub stars, pull requests and releases

A repository or organization webhook sends every event to one URL. EventBar turns each into its own type, so stars, opened pull requests, new issues and published releases each get a switch and a count.

Needs: the free EventBar app on your Mac, an EventBar account, and a GitHub account with permission to add webhooks. About five minutes. GitHub preset, signature verified.

Steps

Create the webhook URL. In the EventBar dashboard, open the Webhooks tab, pick the group this belongs to (one group per site or app is the usual shape), choose the provider GitHub, name it, and press Create. Copy the URL; it stays visible and can be rotated any time.
Paste it into GitHub. In the repository: Settings, then Webhooks, then Add webhook. Payload URL is your hook URL, content type application/json, set a secret and paste the same secret into the hook card in EventBar. Choose the individual events you want rather than everything, or the push firehose will eat your monthly events.
Trigger one. Most services offer a test delivery; otherwise do the real thing once. It shows up in the dashboard's Events tab within a second and in the menu bar, as an undefined type named after the event. That first one is your proof the wiring works.
Make it read well. Press Define on the new type and give it a title and a body template. Fields come from the payload, nested ones with dots. The table below is a starting point.

This preset is on Plus and Pro. Free can do the same with a Generic JSON hook and a type field of type, without the signature check.

What you'll see

Type	Title	Body template
`star.created`	New star	`{sender.login} starred {repository.full_name}`
`pull_request.opened`	Pull request	`{pull_request.title} by {pull_request.user.login}`
`issues.opened`	Issue	`{issue.title} by {issue.user.login}`
`release.published`	Release	`{release.tag_name} of {repository.name}`
`push`	Push	`{pusher.name} pushed to {ref} of {repository.name}`

Every type has its own switch in the menu bar, so a noisy one can be quiet on this Mac and still counted. Counts cover the last hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days and all time.

Worth knowing

The type is the X-GitHub-Event header plus the payload's action, so pull_request with opened becomes pull_request.opened. Mute the actions you don't want from the menu bar.
Links: give pull_request.opened the link template {pull_request.html_url} and clicking the notification opens the PR. Issues use {issue.html_url}, releases {release.html_url}.
GitHub sends a ping when you save the webhook. It counts once and tells you the wiring works.

The full contract, including how each preset reads a payload and what the answers mean, is in the API docs. Something about GitHub's payload changed? Tell us and we'll fix the guide.