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How to Use Urlwatch with a Custom CSS Selector

Use a urlwatch job’s YAML css filter to monitor selected page elements, then run urlwatch --test-filter to verify the content being compared.

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To monitor only part of a page with urlwatch, add a css filter to the job’s YAML and set it to the CSS selector for the element or elements you want watched. For example:

url: https://example.net/css.html
filter:
  - css: ul#groceries > li.unchecked

This selects unchecked list items that are direct children of the element with the ID groceries. urlwatch compares the filtered content rather than the whole fetched page. The urlwatch handbook documents this CSS filter syntax.

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Set up a CSS selector in a urlwatch job

  1. Choose the page. Set url to the address urlwatch should fetch.
  2. Choose the content. Inspect the page’s markup and identify the element or elements whose changes should trigger a notification.
  3. Add the filter. Put a css item under the job’s filter key. For example, main article .price targets elements with class price inside an article within main; it is illustrative, so confirm that the live page has that structure.
  4. Preview the result. Run urlwatch --test-filter for the job and inspect the output. The preview shows what will pass into the comparison pipeline; it is safer than assuming that a selector matches the intended text.

A job can therefore be as simple as:

url: https://example.net/css.html
filter:
  - css: ul#groceries > li.unchecked

The > combinator means “direct child,” so the selector does not match unchecked list items nested inside another element between the list and item.

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Check what urlwatch selected

Run urlwatch --test-filter and read the filtered output before relying on notifications. If the result is empty, unexpectedly broad, or missing the relevant text, revisit the selector against the page’s actual markup. When filters are chained, order matters: each filter receives the previous filter’s output. Test the complete chain, not just the CSS stage. The urlwatch handbook describes filter chaining and the test-filter command.

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Fix common selector problems

The selector matches too much or too little

Check the target page’s HTML and adjust the relationship, tag, ID, or class in the selector. For example, adding a parent ID can narrow a selector that otherwise matches similar elements elsewhere on the page. Test again and confirm that the output contains exactly the content you intend to monitor.

A browser accepts the selector but urlwatch does not

Do not assume urlwatch supports every selector accepted by a modern browser. Its documentation notes limitations and extensions associated with cssselect; the supported details can depend on the installed dependency version. Check the filter documentation and the cssselect documentation for your installation, then test the selector.

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The content is generated by JavaScript

A CSS filter can select only content present in the page content urlwatch has obtained. If the target appears only after browser-side JavaScript runs, a selector alone may return nothing. The urlwatch handbook describes navigate for pages that need browser-based rendering. Configure browser navigation where appropriate, then use urlwatch --test-filter to check the resulting content and filter output. See the urlwatch handbook.

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The page is XML

The versioned filter documentation describes configuring CSS selection for XML with method: xml. Namespace handling and selector compatibility can vary with the target document, so verify the configuration against the XML structure and the documentation for the installed release. The documented version is urlwatch 2.26 filter documentation.

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There are several matches, but you want to keep only some

The current handbook documents CSS filter subfilters including sort. Earlier versioned documentation also describes skip and maxitems. Confirm that an option is available in your installed urlwatch release before depending on it; the evidence here covers the 2.29 online handbook and 2.26 versioned filter documentation, not every release.

When to use CSS, XPath, or browser navigation

  • CSS: A concise choice when the desired page region is naturally described by tag, class, ID, and element relationships.
  • XPath: Another built-in selection approach when the structure or expression you need is more naturally represented with XPath.
  • Browser navigation: Consider it when the content requires browser rendering or JavaScript before it exists in the page content being filtered.

Whichever approach you choose, inspect the filtered output: the goal is to compare the intended content, not merely to make a selector syntactically valid.

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