Checking for folder/file changes using Automator?
You can add a "Run Shell Script" action with the command:

find &lt;directory&gt; -newermm &lt;reference_file&gt;


This will give you all files and directories inside &lt;directory&gt; that have changed since the last change of &lt;reference_file&gt;. Just make sure you modify the &lt;reference_file&gt; each time you run the Automator script.

Also give a look to the find manual page (enter man find in the terminal) for more options. Find is very powerful and further refining your search is usually a matter of a couple of additional options. E.g. to search only for directories modified after &lt;reference_file&gt;:

find &lt;directory&gt; -type d -newermm &lt;reference_file&gt;


If the version that ships with OSX is not enough, you can also try the version that comes with findutils (brew, macports etc) which should have slightly more features.