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Changelog

Release notes and changes to the data catalogue.

A clearer dashboard, broader public data

  • Restored the public site on our Hetzner server with HTTPS and scheduled daily data retrieval.
  • Added 14 monthly IMF series via FRED: groundnuts, oranges, Thai rice, US sugar, softwood logs, hardwood sawnwood, monthly Henry Hub gas, average spot crude, Dubai crude, monthly WTI, and four commodity indices.
  • Expanded FRED retrieval to 20,000 observations and EIA retrieval to 5,000. Saved histories are no longer trimmed to 1,000 records. Coverage varies by source.
  • Aligned IMF series currency and units with the source metadata, including US cents and index base years.
  • Moved the benchmark table above the fold and put the coverage breakdown behind an expandable row. Reduced spacing on commodity pages to bring charts into view sooner.
  • Simplified table and chart controls, and corrected clipped category navigation.
  • Fixed mobile column hiding so narrowing the screen no longer overwrites saved desktop column choices.
  • Repaired theme contrast across navigation, settings, tables, and detail pages. Added an appearance switch in the header.
  • Separated observation dates from retrieval dates, and corrected the chart label for monthly data.
  • Added a sitemap, crawler directives, and page-specific titles, descriptions, and canonical links.
RELEASE

v1.3.0 — Dense Data Board & Reliability

A faster, more scannable home view — and a more reliable site under the hood.

New

  • The compact data board is now the default home view — a dense, scannable table with per-row price sparklines, sortable columns, right-aligned figures, and CSV export
  • Prefer the cards? The grid view is one click away in settings, and your choice is remembered

Improved

  • Charts now use a true time axis with evenly spaced dates
  • Consistent two-decimal prices and percentages across every view
  • Faster first paint — non-blocking chart scripts and longer caching on static assets
  • More accurate “today / yesterday” relative dates across time zones

Reliability

  • Hardened the server against the load spikes behind occasional “service unavailable” errors — pages now serve from a shared cache that survives restarts
  • Pinned dependencies so production deploys are deterministic and can’t break on a surprise update
  • Added security headers and a /health endpoint for uptime monitoring
UPDATE

v1.2.1 — Detail Change-Period Controls & Stability Updates

Improved commodity detail insights with selectable return windows, persisted preferences, and targeted test stability fixes.

Added

  • Commodity detail change-period selector: Prev obs, ~30 obs, ~1 year
  • Context label showing selected comparison window and as-of date
  • Persisted detail change-period preference via AsyncStorage
  • New mobile test coverage for detail header period switching

Improved

  • Period-aware change calculations now use derived stats when available
  • Absolute change display remains anchored to base observation direction
  • Commodity typing expanded for derived stats and frequency metadata
  • Web test harness stability improved by stubbing shared escapeHtml utility
NEW

v1.2.0 — USDA Source Expansion & Mobile-First UI

Massive expansion from 26 to 72 tracked commodities, plus a complete mobile-first UI overhaul.

Data Pipeline

  • Added USDA NASS as a third data source (alongside FRED and EIA)
  • New Livestock category: Cattle, Hogs, Milk, Chicken, Eggs, Turkeys, Wool, Lamb
  • Expanded agricultural coverage: Oats, Barley, Sorghum, and US Farm Prices
  • Refactored monolithic fetch script into modular package (scripts/fetchers/)
  • Shared utilities: SmartDateParser, safe_get, merge_history, compute_metrics
  • Total commodities: 72 across 5 sources

Mobile-First UI

  • Scroll-hide category nav (Google Console style) — hides on scroll down, reappears on scroll up
  • Added Livestock and Indices links to category navigation
  • Horizontally scrollable range buttons and chart controls on mobile
  • Price hero section stacks vertically on mobile with responsive font sizes
  • Responsive chart height (280px → 350px → 400px by breakpoint)
  • Crosshair info and chart actions stack on narrow screens
NEW

v1.1.0 — Telegram & Discord Bots

Get commodity prices directly in your messaging apps! We've launched official bots for both Telegram and Discord.

Telegram Bot

Get prices instantly via chat commands.

Open in Telegram →

Discord Bot

Add to your server for team access.

Add to Discord →

Bot Commands

  • /price brent — Get a commodity price
  • /prices energy — All prices in a category
  • /top — Top gainers and losers
  • /list — All available commodities
LAUNCH

v1.0.0 — Initial Release

BenchmarkWatcher launches with daily commodity benchmark tracking.

  • 30+ commodities across energy, precious metals, industrial metals, and agriculture
  • Daily end-of-day prices from EIA, FRED, and World Bank
  • Historical charts and price change tracking
  • Multiple themes: Light, Dark, Bloomberg, FT, and Monochrome
  • Responsive design for desktop and mobile
  • Open source on GitHub
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