Nex Pricewatch

Monitor competitor and supplier website prices using CSS, XPath, or regex selectors; track changes with alerts, view history, trends, and export data locally.

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)