Clawdwatch: Open-source OSINT tool for real-time flight tracking, news scraping, and alerts

What Clawdwatch does

Clawdwatch is an open-source OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) CLI tool that aggregates real-time data from multiple sources. The developer built it to get faster information during geopolitical events, citing that during conflicts, "governments say one thing, news is 2 hours behind, and Twitter is 50% bots pushing narratives."

Current features

• Flight tracking: Pulls live data from OpenSky Network (free), tracking 204+ flights over the Middle East in real-time
• News scraping: Scrapes live news from Al Jazeera and AP (example: pulled "Iran strikes US military base in Bahrain" before it hit most US feeds)
• Military aircraft detection: Watches for NATO callsigns and flags them
• Emergency squawk monitoring: Alerts when a plane broadcasts 7700 (emergency), 7600 (radio failure), or 7500 (hijack)

Setup and usage

The tool requires Node.js and is installed with:

git clone https://github.com/cloudweaver/clawdwatch.git
cd clawdwatch
npm install
npm run watch

It starts pulling live data immediately after installation. The default region is the Middle East, but you can change it to Europe, USA, or Asia.

Alert configuration

For Telegram alerts (phone notifications when military aircraft enter airspace or sketchy events occur), you need to set up with BotFather, which takes about 5 minutes.

Additional features requiring API keys

• Twitter/X monitoring (needs bearer token)
• Satellite imagery via Sentinel Hub
• Ship tracking via AIS (for watching tankers and naval movements)

Why this matters for developers

This type of tool demonstrates how developers can build their own intelligence gathering systems using publicly available data sources. The approach of combining flight data, news scraping, and alert systems creates a comprehensive monitoring tool that runs entirely locally without third-party services.