Skip to content
/ target-stock-monitor Public

A Python-based stock monitoring tool for Target.com products with Discord webhook integration. Built through reverse-engineering Target's Redsky API using HAR file analysis.

License

MIT license
0 stars 0 forks Branches Tags Activity
Star
Notifications You must be signed in to change notification settings

Travis-ML/target-stock-monitor

BranchesTags

Folders and files

NameName
Last commit message
Last commit date

Latest commit

 

History

2 Commits
LICENSE
LICENSE
 
 
README.md
README.md
 
 
target-monitor.py
target-monitor.py
 
 

Repository files navigation

🎯 Target Stock Monitor

A Python-based stock monitoring tool for Target.com products with Discord webhook integration. Built through reverse-engineering Target's Redsky API using HAR file analysis.

⚠️ Disclaimer: This tool is for educational and security research purposes only. Use responsibly and respect Target's terms of service.

Features

  • Real-time Stock Monitoring — Continuously monitors product availability with configurable check intervals
  • Discord Webhook Integration — Rich embed notifications with color-coded alerts (green/yellow/red)
  • Change Detection — Only alerts when stock status actually changes, reducing notification noise
  • Dual Fulfillment Tracking — Monitors both shipping availability and store pickup status
  • Intelligent URL Generation — Creates proper Target product URLs with SEO-friendly slugs
  • Rate Limit Awareness — Built-in warnings and recommendations for sustainable polling
  • Cross-Platform Support — Windows Unicode handling for proper emoji display in terminals
  • Comprehensive Logging — File and console logging with session summaries

How It Works

API Discovery via HAR File Analysis

The API key and endpoints were discovered through browser HAR (HTTP Archive) file analysis (The script will not work until you obtain the API Key and set it in the TargetAPI class in the script):

  1. Open Developer Tools in your browser (F12)
  2. Navigate to the Network tab and enable "Preserve log"
  3. Visit any Target product page and interact with it
  4. Export the HAR file (Right-click → Save all as HAR)
  5. Analyze the requests — Look for the x-api-key value in the header section of the JSON HAR file.

From the HAR file, I extracted:

  • API Base URL: https://redsky.target.com/redsky_aggregations/v1/web
  • API Key: A public/frontend key passed as a query parameter
  • Required Headers: Browser-like headers to avoid bot detection
  • Endpoint Patterns: /pdp_client_v1 for product info, /product_fulfillment_and_variation_hierarchy_v1 for stock data

API Endpoints Used

Endpoint Purpose
/pdp_client_v1 Product details (title, price, description)
/product_fulfillment_and_variation_hierarchy_v1 Stock availability, quantities, fulfillment options

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Travis-ML/target-stock-monitor.git
cd target-stock-monitor

# Install dependencies
pip install requests

Usage

Quick Availability Check

Check a product's current stock status once and exit:

python target-monitor.py 94681790 --check-once

Continuous Monitoring

Monitor a product with default 2-minute intervals:

python target-monitor.py 94681790

Monitor with Discord Alerts

python target-monitor.py 94681790 --discord-webhook "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL"

Custom Configuration

python target-monitor.py 94681790 \
    --interval 180 \
    --duration 3600 \
    --store 874 \
    --zip 12345 \
    --discord-webhook "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/..."

Test Discord Webhook

Verify your webhook is working before starting a monitoring session:

python target-monitor.py 94681790 --test-discord --discord-webhook "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/..."

Command Line Arguments

Argument Default Description
tcin (required) Target product ID (found in URL: /p/A-TCIN)
--interval 120 Check interval in seconds
--duration ∞ Total monitoring duration in seconds
--store 874 Target store ID for local inventory
--zip 12345 ZIP code for shipping availability
--check-once — Single check mode, exit after one check
--discord-webhook — Discord webhook URL for notifications
--test-discord — Test webhook and exit

Check Frequency Considerations

The default check interval is 120 seconds (2 minutes). Here's why:

Interval Checks/Hour Risk Level Use Case
30s 120 ⚠️ High Brief monitoring only
60s 60 ⚠️ Moderate Active restocks
120s 30 ✅ Low Recommended default
180s 20 ✅ Very Low Extended monitoring
300s 12 ✅ Minimal Long-term tracking

Recommendations:

  • Intervals below 30 seconds will trigger warnings and may result in rate limiting (HTTP 429)
  • For extended monitoring sessions, use 180s+ intervals
  • The script logs rate limit responses and handles them gracefully

Discord Integration

Webhook Setup

  1. Open your Discord server settings
  2. Navigate to Integrations → Webhooks
  3. Click New Webhook and configure the channel
  4. Copy the webhook URL

Notification Features

The Discord notifications include:

  • Color-coded embeds:
    • 🟢 Green — In stock
    • 🟡 Yellow — Pre-order available
    • 🔴 Red — Out of stock
  • Product information: Title, price, TCIN
  • Availability details: Shipping quantity, store pickup status
  • Direct link: Clickable URL to the product page
  • Timestamps: When the status changed

Example Discord Alert

🚨 STOCK ALERT! 🚨

🟢 Stock Alert: Pokémon TCG: Charizard Premium Collection
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🏷️ Status: Available for purchase
💰 Price: $129.99
📦 Shipping Quantity: 10 available
🏪 Store Pickup: AVAILABLE
🔢 TCIN: 94681790
⏰ Timestamp: 2024-01-15T10:30:45

Stock Status Codes

Status Description
IN_STOCK Available for purchase
OUT_OF_STOCK Currently unavailable
PRE_ORDER_SELLABLE. Pre-order available
PRE_ORDER_UNSELLABLE Pre-order not yet available
UNAVAILABLE Product discontinued

Finding Product TCINs

The TCIN (Target Common Item Number) is the unique product identifier. Find it in the product URL:

https://www.target.com/p/pokemon-tcg-charizard/-/A-94681790
                                                    ^^^^^^^^
                                                    This is the TCIN

Project Structure

target-stock-monitor/
├── target-monitor.py      # Main monitoring script
├── target_monitor.log     # Log file (auto-generated)
└── README.md              # This file

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Target Stock Monitor                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                             │
│  ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐   │
│  │  TargetAPI   │───▶│ StockMonitor │───▶│   Discord    │   │
│  │              │    │              │    │   Webhook    │   │
│  │ • Product    │    │ • Change     │    │              │   │
│  │   Info       │    │   Detection  │    │ • Rich       │   │
│  │ • Fulfillment│    │ • Logging    │    │   Embeds     │   │
│  │   Status     │    │ • Callbacks  │    │ • Alerts     │   │
│  └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘   │
│         │                                                   │
│         ▼                                                   │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │              Target Redsky API                       │   │
│  │        redsky.target.com/redsky_aggregations         │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Sample Output

2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] ======================================================================
2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] Starting Target Stock Monitor
2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] TCIN: 94681790
2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] Check Interval: 120s
2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] Duration: Infinite
2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] Discord Alerts: Enabled
2024-01-15 10:30:00 [INFO] ======================================================================
2024-01-15 10:30:01 [INFO] Product: Pokémon TCG: Charizard Premium Collection
2024-01-15 10:30:01 [INFO] Price: $129.99
2024-01-15 10:30:02 [INFO] Check #1: OUT_OF_STOCK | Qty: 0.0
2024-01-15 10:32:02 [INFO] Check #2: OUT_OF_STOCK | Qty: 0.0
2024-01-15 10:34:02 [WARNING] ⚠️  STATUS CHANGE #1: OUT_OF_STOCK → IN_STOCK
2024-01-15 10:34:02 [WARNING] 🚨 PRODUCT IN STOCK! 🚨
2024-01-15 10:34:03 [INFO] ✅ Discord notification sent successfully

Technical Details

Request Headers

The script mimics a real browser to avoid detection:

{
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) ...',
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Origin': 'https://www.target.com',
    'sec-ch-ua': '"Chromium";v="142"',
    'sec-fetch-mode': 'cors',
    ...
}

URL Slug Generation

Product URLs are generated with proper slugs for cleaner links:

Input:  "Pokémon TCG: Charizard Premium Collection"
Output: https://www.target.com/p/pokemon-tcg-charizard-premium-collection/-/A-94681790

The slug generator handles:

  • Unicode normalization (é → e)
  • HTML entity decoding
  • Special character removal
  • Length truncation at word boundaries

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

License

MIT License — See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

  • Built through HAR file analysis and reverse engineering
  • Discord webhook integration for real-time alerts
  • Inspired by the need to catch limited product restocks

Remember: This tool is for educational purposes. Be respectful of Target's infrastructure and use reasonable check intervals.

About

A Python-based stock monitoring tool for Target.com products with Discord webhook integration. Built through reverse-engineering Target's Redsky API using HAR file analysis.

Resources

Readme

License

MIT license
Activity

Stars

0 stars

Watchers

0 watching

Forks

0 forks
Report repository

Releases

No releases published

Packages

No packages published

Languages