The latest articles on DEV Community by knox-night (@knoxnight). https://dev.to/knoxnight https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4181132%2F95f18243-d33a-47ef-b635-d95e46cb36c9.png https://dev.to/knoxnight en knox-night Tue, 13 Oct 2026 05:58:29 +0000 https://dev.to/knoxnight/drowning-in-github-notifications-i-built-a-fix-1gjd https://dev.to/knoxnight/drowning-in-github-notifications-i-built-a-fix-1gjd <p>I built GitHub Digest to fix a problem I kept running into: my GitHub notifications were buried in noise, and I couldn't tell what was actually waiting on me.</p> <h2> The problem </h2> <p>My GitHub notifications were a mess. Hundreds of them, and I could never tell which ones were waiting on me and which were just noise. A review request would sit under 40 threads I didn't care about.</p> <h2> What I built </h2> <p><strong>GitHub Digest</strong> logs you in with GitHub and sorts your notifications into three groups:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Needs you now:</strong> review requests, questions aimed at you, failed builds</li> <li> <strong>Worth a look today:</strong> mentions and comments</li> <li> <strong>Can wait:</strong> everything else</li> </ul> <p>Each thread also gets:</p> <ul> <li>A short AI-written summary of what it's asking you to do</li> <li>A "Why it's here" line, like "Someone needs your review"</li> <li>Done and Mute buttons, so a thread you don't care about stays gone</li> </ul> <p>Review requests that sit for 2+ days get a "Waiting" badge.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fv06iw1z0v4f4dipvnxjf.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fv06iw1z0v4f4dipvnxjf.png" alt=" " width="799" height="362"></a></p> <h2> How it works </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Backend:</strong> Node.js and Express</li> <li> <strong>Login:</strong> GitHub OAuth. It only asks for <code>read:user</code> and <code>notifications</code>, never access to your code</li> <li> <strong>Database:</strong> Turso (hosted SQLite). Access tokens are encrypted before they're stored</li> <li> <strong>AI summaries:</strong> Google Gemini, for your 20 most urgent threads. Only the title, type, reason and repo name are sent, never the thread contents</li> <li> <strong>Hosting:</strong> Render</li> </ul> <h2> What I learned </h2> <ul> <li>Getting OAuth, sessions and a database working together taught me more than any tutorial.</li> <li>A bug that only showed up on the live site (a wrongly named environment variable) took me hours to find. Check your deploy logs first.</li> <li>Someone on Reddit told me a priority label is easier to trust when it explains itself. I added the "Why it's here" line the same day.</li> </ul> <h2> What's next </h2> <ul> <li>Letting users correct a priority when it's wrong</li> <li>Daily email digests (the code is in, but I haven't turned it on yet)</li> </ul> <p>It's free while I build it. Try it here: <a href="https://githubdigest.space" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://githubdigest.space</a></p> <p>I'm building this solo and would love honest feedback. What's confusing, what's missing, and what would make you actually use it?</p> ai webdev productivity github