You know that feeling, right?
It's a constant checking, refreshing a page,
checking the build status, waiting for some update.
It's exhausting.
It just eats up your time.
And honestly, your focus?
What if you didn't have to do that anymore?
Imagine having a digital helper, a sort of secret twin
that just does all that repetitive web checking for you
and only pings you when something actually changes.
Well, today we're doing a deep dive
into exactly that kind of tool.
It's called Kibitser, the personal web assistant.
We've gone through its GitHub repo, the docs,
all the sources you gave us, our mission,
to break down what Kibitser is,
why being self-hosted is such a big deal here,
and crucially, how easy it actually is for, well,
even a beginner to get started automating this stuff.
But before we jump in, a quick shout out to Safe Server
for supporting this deep dive.
Safe Server helps with hosting software like this
and supports your digital transformation journey.
You can find out more at www.safeserver.de.
Okay, so this secret twin brother idea,
the docs actually use that phrase,
like a secret twin brother who does routine tasks
and asks for nothing in return.
I kinda like that description.
Yeah, it's evocative, isn't it?
And it really nails the core idea.
Kibitzers is fundamentally monitoring software.
Its job is to pull, check websites, APIs, files,
whatever data source you point it at, again and again.
And then, only when the specific bit of data
you're watching changes, it does something.
Usually, it sends you a notification.
The whole point is shifting that burden, right?
So you don't have to constantly check.
It lets you, as they say, stay on the edge of events your way.
And it's not some lockdown commercial thing, right?
We should probably confirm its status.
Absolutely.
Yeah, the source is confirmed.
It's FOSS, Free Open Source Software, MIT license,
which is very permissive.
And looking at GitHub, it seems pretty healthy.
22 contributors, almost 800 commits, nearly 700 stars.
It's definitely active and has a community around it.
And what's under the hood?
What makes it tick?
It's overwhelmingly Python, like 96.7% Python code.
The creators even mentioned Python
is kind of the perfect language for Kibbutz,
which makes sense, I think.
Why is that?
Well, Python just has this huge ecosystem
for web scraping, network stuff, parsing data.
All the things you need for a tool like this
are readily available as libraries.
It makes building these monitors much easier.
Right, that makes sense.
But OK, Python means setup, dependencies.
If it's self-hosted, does that mean I suddenly
need to be a server admin?
And in a world full of cloud services, things like Zapier,
why go to the trouble of self-hosting?
That's really the core question, isn't it?
And Kibitzer's documentation hits it head-on.
It says pretty bluntly, self-hosted,
trust no one with your credentials.
That's the fundamental reason.
Credentials.
OK, so if you're monitoring sensitive stuff.
Exactly.
Think about some of the examples we'll get to,
like checking your bank balance or maybe a private build
server inside your company.
You simply cannot, or at least shouldn't,
hand over those logins to some third party cloud platform.
Self-hosting keeps you in control.
So it's about security and privacy, first and foremost.
It is.
But it's also about reach and flexibility.
Because it's self-hosted, it runs wherever you run it.
Windows, Linux, Mac, desktop, server, doesn't matter.
And this is key.
It can go wherever you can go.
Meaning?
Meaning, if you need to monitor something
behind your corporate VPN, or a site that needs SSH access,
or something only visible from your home network,
Kibitzer can do that because it lives there
on your machine or server, a typical cloud monitoring
service.
It hits that VPN wall and stops.
Your self-hosted twin brother just carries on.
OK, that's actually a huge advantage,
especially for anything internal or sensitive.
It's personal because it operates
from your personal digital space.
Precisely.
And it's practical, too.
The docs mentioned it's lightweight.
It apparently can run on tiniest VM offered by cloud providers.
So you're not looking at massive hosting costs.
Oh, really?
Yeah, they even suggest trying it on AWS free tier or GCP.
Always free.
So self-hosting doesn't have to break the bank, even
for something running 24-7.
All right, let's make this concrete.
What kind of routine tasks are we actually talking about?
What does a secret twin brother do?
Any good examples from the docs?
Oh, yeah, there's a good range.
On the sort of developer IT side,
there's the classic example, waiting for a long build
on something like TeamCity to finish.
Ah, yes, the eternal wheat.
Exactly.
Instead of hitting Refresh, Kibitzer
just tells you when it's done.
Or, say, tracking a specific bug fix
release for a library you depend on.
OK, that makes sense for tech stuff.
What about more personal things, where that self-hosted trust
really matters?
Well, the examples get pretty personal.
The docs mention a bank balance how-to.
Whoa, OK.
Yeah, and another success story someone shared
was about pulling a Russian passport readiness status.
Checking passport status.
Wow, that's often some clunky government website
you have to keep checking manually, right?
Exactly.
These are often tasks involving sites
that don't have nice, clean APIs.
They're messy, maybe require logins,
maybe involve multiple steps.
And these are definitely things you
don't want some random third-party service logging
into for you.
No kidding.
That passport example really highlights
the value automating something genuinely annoying
and time-consuming in the real world.
Right.
And Kipitzer is built for this.
Yeah.
The docs say it handles everything
from raw SSH commands to complex browser scenarios.
It knows protocols.
It's not just grabbing simple text.
OK, but monitoring bank balances,
interacting with complex government sites,
that sounds like it needs serious programming skills
to set up the rules.
How does Kipitzer make that part easy, especially
for a beginner?
This is where the assistant part really shines, I think.
You don't define these tasks in Python code, generally.
You define them in YAML.
YAML, OK, the configuration file format.
Right.
And the key is that it's designed to be human-friendly.
It's structured.
It's readable.
But here's the real magic, I think.
You can change what it monitors or how it monitors just
by tweaking that YAML file.
No coding, no restarting complex processes.
So if the bank website changes its layout slightly.
You just adjust the selector in the YAML.
Maybe it takes 30 seconds.
It makes maintaining these checks much, much simpler
than managing custom scripts.
Gotcha.
So the YAML is like the instruction manual
for your assistant.
Define the where, the how often.
Pretty much.
You set it up once in that central file.
And then, as they say, sit back and relax.
Kibitzer will notify you when something happens.
And the notifications, how do they arrive?
It integrates with common tools.
The docs mention Slack and Mailgun specifically.
So you can get alerts directly in your chat or email,
wherever works best for you.
OK, let's circle back to the beginner angle.
We see the value.
We see the power.
But how easy is that initial step,
getting it up and running?
They seem to have focused on making
that really straightforward.
It's basically three steps using Python's package manager, PIP.
Step one, install.
Just PIP install Kibitzer.
And it works with Python 2 and 3,
which is good for flexibility.
Step two, configure.
And again, that whole configuration in one YAML file
approach is key for beginners.
Everything's in one place.
Step three, run.
Just type Kibitzer in your terminal.
That's it.
Install, configure, run.
It seems designed to be a very gentle on-ramp.
OK, simple start.
But then, you mentioned complex browser scenarios, SSH commands.
The sources also call it powerful.
How does it bridge that gap?
If I start simple, how hard is it to level up?
That's the neat part.
You don't really switch tools.
You just add more capabilities to your YAML configuration.
That powerful aspect comes from its built-in features
and integrations.
Like what?
Well, simple page checking fails if the data
is loaded with JavaScript after the page initially loads, right?
Yeah, happens all the time.
So Kibitzer can use Selenium for that.
Selenium basically drives a real web browser behind the scenes.
Your Kibitzer Assistant can then log in, click buttons,
wait for things to load, just like a human would,
and then grab the data it needs from the fully rendered page.
Yeah, so it can handle those dynamic, modern web pages.
It's not just scraping static HTML.
It's actually interacting.
Exactly.
It's doing the tedious click work,
and then to find the exact piece of information
you want, like just the price on a product page,
not the whole description.
It supports things like XPath and CSS selectors.
These are ways to precisely target
a tiny piece of information within a huge web page.
So you only get alerted if that specific price changes,
or that specific status updates.
Not just if anything on the page changes, much less noise.
That precision is key.
And can you extend it further if the built-in stuff isn't
enough?
Absolutely.
You can plug in your own bash or Python scripts pretty easily.
And there's a plug-in system for more complex extensions.
Plus, they mention a vibrant, friendly community
on Gitter, which is probably invaluable when you start
getting into the more advanced configurations,
like complex xBath queries.
OK, so let's pull this all together.
What's the takeaway here?
Kibitzer seems to offer this potent mix of serious web
automation power, but wrapped in a way that keeps you in control
because it's self-hosted.
That's critical for sensitive stuff like finances
or government interactions.
And importantly, it pairs that power with a simple setup
using that YAML file, making it accessible
even if you're just starting out with automation.
It feels like a really nice balance.
I think that's a fair summary.
Simplicity to start, but with the power readily
available when you need it, all while maintaining
control and privacy.
So we've heard it can check bank balances, track passport
applications, monitor builds.
Given how relatively easy it seems to get started
and the power it offers with things like Selenium,
here's something to think about.
What repetitive, maybe slightly annoying, time-wasting task
are you doing online every day or every week?
Could that task be handed over securely and reliably
to your own secret twin brother?
Definitely something to consider.
And with that thought, we want to give our sincere thanks
once again to SafeServer for supporting this deep dive.
Remember, for help with software hosting
and digital transformation needs,
you can check them out at www.safeserver.de.
Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you on the next deep dive.