🦅 GSOC Watchdog

The Automated "Good First Issue" Hunter for GSOC Aspirants

💡 The Inspiration

As a Computer Science student preparing for Google Summer of Code (GSOC) 2026, I realized the biggest pain point is finding "Good First Issues" before other contributors claim them. Manually refreshing GitHub pages is inefficient and distracting.

I built GSOC Watchdog to solve this. It is a "set it and forget it" backend agent that works for me while I sleep.

🚀 What It Does

GSOC Watchdog is a serverless backend workflow built on Motia.

1. Scans: Every 30 minutes, it wakes up and queries the GitHub API for specific repositories (e.g., VS Code, FastAPI).
2. Filters: It intelligently looks for open issues tagged good first issue.
3. Alerts: When a fresh issue is found, it triggers an event that logs the details immediately (and can be extended to send Discord/Email notifications).

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3.13
• Framework: Motia (Backend Orchestration)
• APIs: GitHub REST API
• Libraries: requests

⚡ How It Uses Motia

This project demonstrates the power of Motia's event-driven architecture by decoupling "Finding" from "Acting".

• Step 1: The Hunter (gsoc_hunter_step.py)

  • Type: cron (Scheduled Task)
  • Logic: specific Python logic to fetch and parse GitHub JSON data.
  • Motia Feature: Uses context.emit() to broadcast a "found_issue" event only when relevant data appears.

• Step 2: The Notifier (printer_step.py)

  • Type: event (Listener)
  • Logic: Listens purely for the "found_issue" event.
  • Why this matters: This separation of concerns means I can easily add a "Send to Discord" step later without breaking the scanning logic.

📦 How to Run Locally

1. Clone the Repo

   git clone <your-repo-url>
   cd gsoc-watchdog

2. Install Dependencies

   npm install       # Installs Motia
   npx motia install # Installs Python requirements (requests)

3. Run the Server

   npx motia dev

4. See it in Action

   • Open http://localhost:3000
   • Click "Trigger" on the GSOC-Hunter step.
   • Watch the logs light up with fresh issues!

🔮 Future Roadmap

• Discord Integration: Connect the printer_step to a Discord Webhook.
• Multi-Repo Support: Allow users to pass a list of 10+ organizations to watch.
• AI Filtering: Use an LLM step to analyze if the issue is actually easy or just mislabeled.

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Built for MotiaHack25 Backend Reloaded.