Nex PriceWatch#

Competitive Price Monitor for SMEs and Agencies. Track competitor and supplier pricing with automatic alerts, historical data, and analytics. All pricing data stays on your machine.

When to Use#

Use this skill when the user asks about:

• Tracking competitor pricing pages
• Monitoring supplier cost changes
• Setting up price alerts for competitors
• Comparing your pricing against competitors
• Historical price analysis and trends
• Detecting when competitors change their pricing
• Exporting price history for analysis
• Price monitoring dashboard

Trigger phrases: "price", "pricing", "competitor", "concurrentie" (Dutch), "prijs", "tarief", "goedkoper", "duurder", "monitor", "track competitor", "price alert", "price change", "pricing comparison", "have competitors changed their prices"

Quick Setup#

If the database does not exist yet, run the setup script:

bash

bash setup.sh

This creates the data directory and initializes the SQLite database.

Available Commands#

1. Add a Price Target#

Add a website to monitor:

bash

nex-pricewatch add \
  --name "Competitor X Website Package" \
  --url "https://competitor.be/pricing" \
  --competitor "WebAgency X" \
  --selector ".price-premium" \
  --selector-type css \
  --type competitor \
  --currency EUR

Parameters:

• --name (required): Descriptive target name
• --url (required): Full URL to monitor
• --competitor: Competitor/company name
• --selector-type (required): css, xpath, regex, or text
• --selector (required): CSS class ( .price), ID ( #price), regex pattern, or text label
• --type: competitor, supplier, or market (default: competitor)
• --currency: Currency code (EUR, USD, etc.)
• --interval: Check interval in hours (default: 24)
• --tags: Comma-separated tags
• --notes: Additional notes

Selector Examples:

• CSS class: .price-tag → finds element with class "price-tag"
• CSS ID: #pricing → finds element with id "pricing"
• Regex: \€[\d.,]+ → finds currency amounts
• Text label: Prijs → finds price near text label

2. Check Prices Now#

bash

nex-pricewatch check
nex-pricewatch check --name "Competitor X Website Package"
nex-pricewatch check --alerts
nex-pricewatch check --alerts --telegram

Check current prices for all or specific targets. Shows success/failure and any price changes.

3. List Targets#

bash

nex-pricewatch list

Shows all configured targets with current prices and status.

4. Show Target Details#

bash

nex-pricewatch show "Competitor X Website Package"

Display detailed information including:

• Target configuration
• Current and previous prices
• Recent price history
• Price statistics (min, max, avg, trend)

5. Price History#

bash

nex-pricewatch history "Competitor X Website Package"
nex-pricewatch history "Competitor X Website Package" --since 2026-01-01
nex-pricewatch history "Competitor X Website Package" --limit 20

View complete price history with timestamps and raw extracted text.

6. Recent Changes#

bash

nex-pricewatch changes
nex-pricewatch changes --since 2026-01-01

Show all detected price changes with percentages and dates.

7. Compare Pricing#

bash

nex-pricewatch compare

Side-by-side view of all competitor pricing organized by company.

8. Dashboard View#

bash

nex-pricewatch dashboard

Full monitoring dashboard with all tracked prices, trends, and status.

9. Remove Target#

bash

nex-pricewatch remove "Competitor X Website Package"
nex-pricewatch remove "Competitor X Website Package" --force

Remove a price target and its history.

10. Export History#

bash

nex-pricewatch export "Competitor X Website Package"
nex-pricewatch export "Competitor X Website Package" --format csv
nex-pricewatch export "Competitor X Website Package" --output prices.json

Export price history as JSON or CSV for external analysis.

11. Statistics#

bash

nex-pricewatch stats

Overall statistics including:

• Total targets configured
• Number of price changes (30 days)
• Biggest price increase
• Biggest price decrease

12. Configuration#

bash

nex-pricewatch config

Display current configuration settings.

Alert Configuration#

Alerts are automatically generated when:

• Price increases by more than 5%
• Price decreases by more than 10%

Adjust these thresholds in lib/config.py:

python

ALERT_INCREASE_PCT = 5
ALERT_DECREASE_PCT = 10

Telegram Notifications (Optional)#

To enable Telegram alerts:

1. Create a Telegram bot via @BotFather

2. Set environment variables: bash

   export NEX_PRICEWATCH_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your_bot_token"
   export NEX_PRICEWATCH_TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID="your_chat_id"
   
   

3. Enable in config: TELEGRAM_ENABLED = True

Data Storage#

All price data is stored locally at ~/.nex-pricewatch/:

• pricewatch.db - SQLite database with all targets, prices, and alerts
• snapshots/ - HTML snapshots for comparison

Supported Selectors#

CSS Selectors#

Simple CSS selector matching:

• .price - class selector
• #price - ID selector
• span.amount - tag with class
• Works with common price page structures

XPath#

Basic XPath support:

• //div[@class='price']/span
• //span[@id='price']

Regex#

Full regex pattern matching:

• \€[\d.,]+ - Euro amounts
• \$\d{2,4}(\.\d{2})? - Dollar amounts
• \d+\s*(?:euro|EUR) - Numbers followed by currency

Text Labels#

Find price near text labels:

• Prijs - finds "Prijs: €1.499,00"
• Price - finds "Price: $99.99"
• Tarif - finds "Tarif: 1999 EUR"

Interpreting Results#

Price changes show:

• ⬆️ +X%: Price increased
• ⬇️ -X%: Price decreased
• 🔔: New price tracking started

Trends indicate direction:

• UP: Recent prices higher than historical average
• DOWN: Recent prices lower than historical average
• STABLE: Consistent pricing

Examples#

Track WebAgency Competitor Pricing#

bash

nex-pricewatch add \
  --name "WebAgency X Standard Package" \
  --url "https://webagency-x.be/pricing" \
  --competitor "WebAgency X" \
  --selector ".pricing-card:nth-child(2) .price" \
  --selector-type css

nex-pricewatch check --alerts

Monitor Supplier Material Costs#

bash

nex-pricewatch add \
  --name "Steel supplier A - 10mm plate" \
  --url "https://supplier-a.com/catalog/steel" \
  --type supplier \
  --selector "table.prices tr:contains('10mm') .price" \
  --selector-type css

nex-pricewatch history "Steel supplier A - 10mm plate" --since 2025-12-01

Market Rate Tracking#

bash

nex-pricewatch add \
  --name "EURIBOR 12M Rate" \
  --url "https://www.euribor-rates.eu/" \
  --type market \
  --selector ".euribor-12m-rate" \
  --selector-type css

nex-pricewatch dashboard

Export for Analysis#

bash

nex-pricewatch export "WebAgency X Standard Package" --format csv --output ~/analysis.csv

Troubleshooting#

Price Not Extracting#

1. Check URL: Ensure the URL is correct and accessible
2. Inspect page: Right-click → Inspect to find correct selector
3. Test selector: Try different selector types (css, xpath, regex)
4. Use regex: If static selectors fail, use regex: \€[\d.,]+

JavaScript-Heavy Sites#

If the site loads prices with JavaScript:

1. Try regex selector: \€[\d.,]+
2. Or provide the actual HTML view source selector
3. Advanced: Use playwright (optional dependency) for dynamic sites

Currency Parsing Issues#

If currency not detected:

1. Specify explicit --currency code
2. Ensure price format includes currency symbol or code
3. Supported: EUR, USD, GBP, JPY, CNY, INR, etc.

Privacy & Security#

• All data stored locally in ~/.nex-pricewatch/
• No data sent to external services (except optional Telegram)
• Uses standard HTTP with proper user-agent
• Snapshots stored for comparison purposes only

Technical Details#

• Database: SQLite (lib/storage.py)
• Scraper: Python urllib + regex (lib/scraper.py)
• Alerts: Threshold-based detection (lib/alerter.py)
• No external dependencies: Uses Python stdlib only
• Optional: Playwright for JavaScript-heavy sites

License#

MIT-0 License - Copyright 2026 Nex AI (Kevin Blancaflor)