Configuration

Everything lives in ~/.watchcat (or $WATCHCAT_HOME), mode 0700:

• bin/watchcat: the binary (~/.local/bin/watchcat links here; the service runs this path directly)
• config.json: settings, see below
• watchcat.db: SQLite (PRs, history, task queue)
• logs/watchcat.log: daemon output when run as a service

config.json

Key	Meaning
listen	API and UI address (default 127.0.0.1:7878)
poll_interval	how often each PR is checked, e.g. "5m"
tick_interval, workers	planner tick and worker pool size
github_host	host for short owner/repo#123 refs (default github.com)
slack	user_id or channel, see Slack
notify_on	change kinds that send a message (default: all except pushed)
workflows, merge_method	see Workflows

Most of these can also be changed on the Settings page, which applies them without a restart.

GitHub Enterprise

PRs can be on any host gh is signed in to:

gh auth login --hostname github.example.com
watchcat pr add https://github.example.com/org/repo/pull/42   # or github.example.com/org/repo#42

Adding a PR on a host gh isn't signed in to is refused. watchcat health lists each signed-in host, its scopes and access to watched repos.

Slack

Create a Slack app with a bot token that has chat:write, then:

watchcat secret set slack-token    # hidden prompt, or: pbpaste | watchcat secret set slack-token
watchcat service restart
watchcat slack test

Set the recipient in config.json, either your member ID or a channel the bot was invited to:

"slack": { "user_id": "U0123456789" }

Secrets

Secrets are kept in the OS secret store under service watchcat-<name>, account $USER (the same convention as DAP's ~/.dap/get-secret.sh):

• macOS: security find-generic-password -a $USER -s watchcat-slack-token -w
• Linux: secret-tool lookup service watchcat-slack-token account $USER

Lookup order is the WATCHCAT_SLACK_TOKEN environment variable, then the keychain, then a plaintext slack.bot_token in an old config.json (which doctor warns about and secret set migrates). watchcat secret list shows where each secret comes from. On Linux without secret-tool and a running keyring, use the environment variable.

Health checks

watchcat health checks the tools as the daemon sees them (--local checks from your shell, --json prints the raw report):

Tool	Required	Checks
gh	yes	version, signed-in hosts and scopes (repo), access to each watched repo
Slack bot	yes	auth.test, scopes (chat:write), channel set
Slack CLI	no	version, slack auth list
opencode	no	version

watchcat doctor adds config, database, service and daemon checks.