Background refresh

Scheduled polling for subscribed repos; check now and rate limits

How it works (user-facing)

Starcat uses macOS background tasks to check subscribed repos for new Releases on an interval (default on the order of hours with jitter; exact timing follows the current build).

• Conditional requests / ETag reduce GitHub API usage
• Only polls targets still linked (starred or ingested)
• Tap Check now on the timeline to run one round manually

Limits

Free tier: up to 5 subscriptions; only active slots keep delivering value. See Subscriptions.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Try
No new notifications for a long time	Open timeline → Check now; confirm subscription still valid
Rate limit	Wait for reset; reduce concurrent manual refreshes
System killed background work	Allow background activity for the app; open the app and check again
No banner	Notification settings + system notification permission

Related

• FAQ · Sync (similar GitHub API limit issues)