SpyWeb – Web scraping/monitoring engine with Lua pipelines and embedded DB (5MB binary)

kosher_12

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I've built a lightweight web scraping/monitoring engine for my own projects and just open-sourced it. It's designed to be a fast, zero-dependency alternative for long-running monitoring tasks.

It ships as a dual binary that runs natively on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It includes an embedded database, a webserver, and a scripting VM while maintaining a footprint of under 5MB of RAM at idle.

Key Features:
  • Multi-Stage Lua Hooks: Full control over the pipeline (pagination, data transforms, and persistent state) via Lua.
  • Embedded KV Store: Built-in deduplication and history tracking. No external database or setup required.
  • Hot Reloading: Configs and Lua scripts are reloaded instantly on save without restarting the process.
  • Flexible Deployment: Runs as a headless CLI for VPS/Server environments or as a silent system tray app for desktop use.

It handles static sites natively and can delegate rendering for JS-heavy pages via the hook system.

Repo: https://github.com/spyweb-rs/spyweb

I'm interested in feedback on the Lua hook design and the overall approach. Check the repo for documentation and implementation details.
 
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