rss-feeds

1---2name: rss-feeds3description: "Read RSS, Atom, JSON feeds; discover feeds behind a page."4version: 1.0.05author: Teknium (teknium1), Hermes Agent6license: MIT7platforms: [linux, macos, windows]8metadata:9  hermes:10    tags: [RSS, Atom, Feeds, Monitoring, Research, Blogs, Releases]11    related_skills: [reddit-reading, competitor-news-monitor, grounded-citations, youtube-content, blogwatcher]12---13 14# RSS Feeds Skill15 16Reads any RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0/RDF, Atom, or JSON Feed URL into a clean, date-sorted list of17entries, and discovers the feed behind an ordinary page URL (`<link rel="alternate">` or18the usual `/feed`, `/rss.xml`, `/atom.xml` paths). Standard library only, nothing to19install. It does not fetch full article bodies — pass an entry's link to `web_extract` for20that.21 22## When to Use23 24- "What's new on <blog/site>", "latest releases of <GitHub repo>", "recent posts in25  <subreddit>", "read this feed", "does this site have an RSS feed".26- Building a recurring digest with `cronjob_manage` (feeds are cheaper and more stable than27  scraping the HTML front page every run). For a persistent read/unread database across28  many feeds install the optional `blogwatcher` skill; this skill is the zero-install read.29- Anything where a structured list of `title / link / date / author / summary` beats a30  rendered page: podcasts, changelogs, YouTube channels, newsrooms, forum categories.31 32## Prerequisites33 34None. Python 3.10+, network access to the feed host.35 36## How to Run37 38Run through `terminal` with the skill-relative script path:39 40```bash41python3 scripts/feed.py read https://hnrss.org/frontpage --limit 1042python3 scripts/feed.py read https://simonwillison.net/            # page URL → discovers the feed43python3 scripts/feed.py read URL --since 2026-09-01 --json          # only newer entries, machine-readable44python3 scripts/feed.py discover https://example.com/               # list candidate feed URLs45```46 47## Quick Reference48 49| Source | Feed URL pattern |50|---|---|51| GitHub releases / commits / tags | `https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/releases.atom`, `…/commits/BRANCH.atom`, `…/tags.atom` |52| Subreddit / Reddit search | `https://www.reddit.com/r/NAME/.rss`, `https://www.reddit.com/search.rss?q=…` (1 req/min anon; see `reddit-reading`) |53| YouTube channel | `https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC…` |54| Hacker News | `https://hnrss.org/frontpage`, `https://hnrss.org/newest?q=TERM` |55| arXiv category | `https://rss.arxiv.org/rss/cs.CL` |56| Substack / Medium / WordPress / Ghost | `SITE/feed`, `medium.com/feed/@user`, `SITE/rss/` |57| Podcasts | the show's RSS URL from its hosting page (`discover` finds it) |58 59Output fields per entry: `title`, `link`, `published` (UTC ISO 8601), `author`, `summary`60(HTML stripped, ≤ 2000 chars). Entries are sorted newest-first.61 62## Procedure63 64① If you only have a site URL, run `read` on it directly; the script discovers the feed65and reports which URL it used (`discovered_from`). Use `discover` when you want to choose66between several advertised feeds (comments feed vs posts feed, per-category feeds).67 68② Bound the request: `--limit` for "latest N", `--since YYYY-MM-DD` for "since last69check". For a cron digest persist the last-seen `published` value and pass it as70`--since` next run.71 72③ For full text, hand the entry `link` to `web_extract`; feed summaries are frequently73truncated or the first paragraph only.74 75④ Cite the entry `link`, not the feed URL, when the result feeds a report76(`grounded-citations`).77 78## Pitfalls79 80- A 200 response with HTML means the URL is a page, not a feed; the script falls through81  to discovery automatically, but a site with no `<link rel="alternate">` and none of the82  common paths reports `no feed found` — check the site's footer or `/sitemap.xml` before83  concluding there is none.84- Reddit feeds share Reddit's anonymous throttle (about one request per minute per IP).85  Chain them through `reddit-reading`, which waits out the window, when you need more86  than one Reddit call.87- Dates: RSS `pubDate` is RFC 822 and Atom uses ISO 8601; the script normalises both to88  UTC. Feeds that omit dates sort to the bottom and are dropped by `--since`.89- Some feeds are Cloudflare-fronted and 403 non-browser clients; `blocked-page-recovery`90  handles that class.91 92## Verification93 94`python3 scripts/feed.py read https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/releases.atom95--limit 1` prints one entry with a `releases/tag/` link and a `[atom]` format tag;96`discover https://simonwillison.net/` prints an `/atom/` URL.97