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Unofficial Red Hat Errata Monitor

Disclaimer: This is an independent, community project. It is not official software supported by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Red Hat, Inc. It is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. Use it entirely at your own risk. See the LICENCE file for details.

Two independent CLI tools (Python and bash) that monitor the Red Hat Errata Search API for new errata matching configurable filters. No authentication required.

Transparency: This project is developed with AI assistance.

Use cases:

  • Track new releases of Red Hat Satellite, Ansible Automation Platform, or any other product
  • Monitor for security, bug-fix, or enhancement advisories
  • Get notified when new errata are published for products you care about
  • Run it on demand to prepare your TAM calls with your customers to proactively notify them about new releases (the author's use case)

Status of this project

  • It's brand new and still in testing
  • I'm not sure filters work correctly, there might be false positives
  • Please submit any issues via the issue tracker of this repo

Requirements

Python version

  • Python 3.9+ (tested on RHEL 9 / Fedora)
  • requests library

Bash version

  • Bash 4+
  • curl
  • jq

Installation

git clone <repo-url> rh_errata_monitor
cd rh_errata_monitor
pip install -r requirements.txt  # Python version only
cp filters.conf.example filters.conf

Quick start

  1. Copy and edit the filter configuration:
cp filters.conf.example filters.conf
  1. Discover available product names:
# Python
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py list-products --search satellite

# Bash
./rh_errata_monitor.sh list-products --search satellite
  1. Run the monitor:
# Python
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py monitor

# Bash
./rh_errata_monitor.sh monitor

On the first run it looks back 30 days by default. Subsequent runs only show errata published since the last successful execution.

Example output

The default format is md (Markdown), which is convenient for pasting into wiki pages, PR comments, or chat:

### satellite-releases (2 new errata since 2026-08-20)

  - [RHBA-2026:51087 - Satellite 6 Client Bug Fix Update](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2026:51087) - None
  - [RHSA-2024:2010 - Important: Satellite 6.15.0 release](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:2010) - Important

### aap-setup-bundle (1 new erratum since 2026-08-20)

  - [RHBA-2026:67611 - Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.7 Setup Bundle Release Update](https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2026:67611) - None

**Total: 3 new errata since 2026-08-20 across 2 filters**

The since DATE suffix always appears for monitor (it always queries from a known date) and only appears for search when --after was explicitly passed. Filters with no results render as a single - none line.

Filter configuration

The file filters.conf uses INI syntax. Each [section] defines a named filter:

[satellite-releases]
product = Red Hat Satellite
synopsis = Satellite 6

[aap-setup-bundle]
synopsis = "Ansible Automation Platform" "Setup Bundle"

[aap-all]
product = Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Key Description API mapping
product Exact product name (use list-products to discover valid names) fq=portal_product_names:("...")
synopsis Free-text search terms; use quotes for phrases q=...
  • Both keys are optional
  • If both are set, results must match both (AND logic)
  • If neither is set, all errata are returned (not recommended)

CLI reference

Both tools share the same interface.

Commands

Command Description
monitor Check for new errata per filter (default)
list-products List available product names from the API
search One-off stateless errata search

Global flags

Flag Description Default
--filters FILE Path to INI filter config filters.conf
--state-file FILE Path to JSON state file .errata_state.json
--initial-days N On first run, look back N days 30
--format {json,csv,md} Output format md
--output FILE Write report to file in addition to stdout (none)
--exit-code Exit with code 2 when new errata are found (off)
--dry-run Show queries without hitting the API (off)
-v / --verbose Enable debug logging (off)

Monitor flags

Flag Description
--reset-filters FILTER [...] Clear seen-errata cache for filters (or all) and exit
--reset-after YYYY-MM-DD When resetting, also rewind the query window to this date

List-products flags

Flag Description
--search TEXT / -s TEXT Filter products by name (case-insensitive)

Search flags

Flag Description Default
--product NAME Filter by exact product name (none)
--synopsis TEXT Search terms for synopsis/content (none)
--after YYYY-MM-DD Errata published after this date (none)
--type {security,bugfix,enhancement} Advisory type (all)
--severity {critical,important,moderate,low} Severity filter (all)
--rows N Max results 50

Examples

# Discover products matching "ansible"
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py list-products --search ansible

# One-off search for Satellite errata since 2024-01-01
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py search --product "Red Hat Satellite" --after 2024-01-01

# Search for AAP bundled installer releases
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py search --synopsis '"Ansible Automation Platform" "Setup Bundle"'

# Monitor with JSON output
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py --format json monitor

# Generate CSV report to file
./rh_errata_monitor.sh --format csv --output /tmp/errata.csv monitor

# Generate a Markdown report (e.g. to paste into a wiki page or PR comment)
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py --format md monitor

# Reset a specific filter and re-check from a date
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py monitor --reset-filters satellite-releases --reset-after 2024-01-01

# Reset all filters
./rh_errata_monitor.sh monitor --reset-filters all --reset-after 2026-01-01

# Use in CI -- exits 2 if new errata found
python3 rh_errata_monitor.py --exit-code monitor

# Dry run -- preview queries
./rh_errata_monitor.sh --dry-run monitor

State file

The monitor stores its state in .errata_state.json (configurable via --state-file). This file contains:

  • last_run -- ISO 8601 timestamp of the last fully successful run (only updated when every filter query succeeds)
  • seen_errata -- per-filter list of errata IDs already reported, used for deduplication across runs

Delete this file or use --reset-filters all to start fresh.

Running on a schedule

Option A: cron

Run the monitor daily at 07:00:

crontab -e

Add:

0 7 * * * cd /opt/rh_errata_monitor && /usr/bin/python3 rh_errata_monitor.py --output /var/log/errata_report.txt 2>&1 | logger -t errata-monitor

To receive email notifications when new errata are found:

MAILTO=admin@example.com
0 7 * * * cd /opt/rh_errata_monitor && /usr/bin/python3 rh_errata_monitor.py --exit-code 2>&1

Option B: systemd timer

/etc/systemd/system/errata-monitor.service

[Unit]
Description=Red Hat Errata Monitor
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
WorkingDirectory=/opt/rh_errata_monitor
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 rh_errata_monitor.py --output /var/log/errata_report.txt
User=errata-monitor
Group=errata-monitor

/etc/systemd/system/errata-monitor.timer

[Unit]
Description=Run Red Hat Errata Monitor daily

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 07:00:00
Persistent=true
RandomizedDelaySec=300

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now errata-monitor.timer

How it works

  1. Reads filter definitions from the INI config file.
  2. Loads state from the JSON state file (last run timestamp + previously seen errata IDs).
  3. For each filter, queries GET https://access.redhat.com/hydra/rest/search/kcs with:
    • q=<synopsis> for text search
    • fq=portal_product_names:("<product>") for product filtering
    • fq=portal_publication_date:[<after_date>T00:00:00Z TO *] for date range
    • Automatic pagination (up to 500 results per page)
  4. Filters out errata already reported in prior runs (deduplication by errata ID).
  5. Prints the report in the requested format.
  6. Updates the state file (timestamp advances only if all filter queries succeeded).

API reference

This tool uses the public search endpoint that powers the Red Hat Errata Search web UI. No authentication is required.

Endpoint: GET https://access.redhat.com/hydra/rest/search/kcs

Key parameters (Solr query syntax):

Parameter Description
q Full-text query (default *:*)
fq Filter query (repeatable): documentKind:("Errata"), product, date range
fl Field list to return
rows Results per page (max ~500)
start Pagination offset
sort Sort order
facet Enable faceting for product discovery

Security considerations

  • --output flag: The --output flag writes the report to any path the current user can write to. When running the tool as a privileged user (e.g. a root cron job), ensure the output path points to a dedicated report directory. Do not pass untrusted input as the --output value in automated pipelines.

Issues

  • This tool is a personal project; expect rough edges
  • Please report issues and feature requests via the issue tracker

About

Unofficial Red Hat Errata Monitor

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MIT license

Contributing

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