# RSS Feed New Item Monitor: Alerts Since Last Run (`accountable_eel/rss-new-item-monitor`) Actor Monitor RSS, Atom and JSON feeds and get only the items that are new since your last run: title, link, date, summary and feed title, billed per new item and free on a quiet check. Blocked, missing and empty feeds are told apart. - **URL**: https://apify.com/accountable_eel/rss-new-item-monitor.md - **Developed by:** [Adriana Voss](https://apify.com/accountable_eel) (community) - **Categories:** Automation, News - **Features:** Limited permissions - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.75 / 1,000 feed item returneds This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md. ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run. For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below. Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`). # README ## RSS Feed New Item Monitor: Alerts Since Last Run **Watch any list of RSS, Atom or JSON feeds and get only the items that are new since your last run.** Paste feed addresses, switch on monitoring, put the actor on a schedule: each run returns one row per new item with its title, link, publish date, summary and feed title, and a quiet check costs nothing. Feeds that block us, return 404 or are not feeds at all come back as a clearly labelled free row, so you can tell "nothing new" from "could not read it". ### Who uses it - **No-code builders** who need a "new post" trigger for an n8n, Make or Zapier flow without running their own feed poller. - **Competitor, press and changelog watchers** who want an alert when a blog, a newsroom or a release feed publishes. - **AI agents and research pipelines** that ingest fresh articles and must not re-read the same item twice. Only public feeds are read, and nothing is fetched except the feed address you list. ### How monitoring works Turn on **Only return items new since the last run**. The actor remembers the item ids it has seen for each feed in a key-value store of its own, per watchlist and per feed, and forgets an id after 60 days of not seeing it. The first run returns what is currently in each feed (everything counts as new once); from the second run on you only get, and pay for, items that were not there before. Keyword filters are applied before an item is remembered, so an item you filtered out is not silently consumed. ### How to use 1. **In the Apify Console.** Open the actor page and click **Start** — the `feeds` field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found. 2. **Via the API.** Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token: ```bash curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~rss-new-item-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=" \ -X POST \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"feeds":["https://news.ycombinator.com/rss","https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml"]}' ``` 3. **On a schedule.** Save this actor as an Apify **Task** with the input you want, then add a **Schedule** (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required. ### Input ```json { "feeds": [ "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ] } ``` One feed address per line. Each line is fetched once per run; every item in it is one row. Turn on monitoring below and run on a schedule to receive only items you have not seen before. Accepted formats: https://news.ycombinator.com/rss, feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml, https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml, https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json. Each line is one feed, with or without `https://`. RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0, Atom and JSON Feed are all read. **Keywords to include / skip** match the item title, link, summary, author, categories and feed title. A feed holds at most its newest 200 items. ### Output One row per delivered item, for example: ```json { "query": "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "found": true, "status": "OK", "feedTitle": "Hacker News", "feedUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "feedFormat": "rss", "itemCount": 30, "monitorStatus": "NEW_ITEMS", "itemId": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042219", "title": "I paid people to try and follow my README", "link": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/i-paid-people-to-try-and-follow-my-readme/", "publishedAt": "2026-10-11T11:47:29.000Z", "summary": "Comments", "author": null, "categories": null, "isNew": true, "firstSeenAt": "2026-10-11T18:00:00.000Z", "scrapedAt": "2026-10-11T18:00:01.000Z" } ``` Columns: | query | found | status | feedTitle | feedUrl | feedFormat | itemCount | monitorStatus | items | itemId | title | link | publishedAt | summary | author | categories | isNew | firstSeenAt | scrapedAt | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | https://news.ycombinator.com/rss | true | OK | | | | | | \ | | | | | | | | \ | | 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Missing values are `null`, never `0` or an empty string. A feed that cannot be read comes back as a row with `"found": false` and a `status`, and is never charged: `BLOCKED` (the host answered 401/403/429/503 or served a bot-check page), `NOT_FOUND` (404), `BAD_FORMAT` (a web page, not a feed) or `REQUEST_FAILED`. A feed that is readable but has nothing new returns a found row with `itemCount: 0`, also free. ### Pricing Pay-per-event. A flat per-run fee covers session/proxy warmup; you're billed per item only when data is actually found and returned — see `.actor/pay_per_event.json` for exact prices. A miss is never charged. ### Example runs Paste any of these into the Input tab and press Start. All three return rows with no key, no token and no account of your own beyond an Apify login. **Two tech-news feeds, everything currently in them.** ```json { "feeds": ["https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml"] } ``` **An Atom feed and a JSON Feed, monitoring on (schedule this one daily).** ```json { "feeds": ["https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml", "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json"], "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true, "deltaName": "design-and-apple-news" } ``` **One feed, only items that mention a keyword, monitoring on.** ```json { "feeds": ["https://news.ycombinator.com/rss"], "includeKeywords": ["rust", "sqlite"], "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true } ``` ### Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token. ```bash curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~rss-new-item-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=" \ -X POST \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"feeds":["https://news.ycombinator.com/rss","https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml"]}' ``` **n8n.** Add an HTTP Request node: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~rss-new-item-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=`, Body Content Type `JSON`, JSON Body `{"feeds":["https://news.ycombinator.com/rss","https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml"]}` (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value). **Clay.** Add an "HTTP API" column: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~rss-new-item-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=`, Body `{"feeds":["{{feed}}"]}`, mapping the row's feed into the `feeds` array. **MCP.** In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "rss feed new item monitor" — the agent will find and run this actor. # Actor input Schema ## `feeds` (type: `array`): One feed address per line. Each line is fetched once per run; every item in it is one row. Turn on monitoring below and run on a schedule to receive only items you have not seen before. Accepted formats: https://news.ycombinator.com/rss, feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml, https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml, https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json. You're only charged for the ones we actually find — a miss costs nothing. ## `testRun` (type: `boolean`): Turn this on to test your input on a small sample before running the full list. Turn it off to process everything. ## `onlyFound` (type: `boolean`): Only keep rows where something was actually found. Misses are always free, whether or not you show them here. ## `includeKeywords` (type: `array`): Optional. Only keep results that mention at least one of these words (e.g. a job title, a city, a product name). Leave empty to keep everything. ## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`): Optional. Drop any result that mentions one of these words. Leave empty to skip nothing. ## `maxResults` (type: `integer`): Optional. Stop the run once this many results have been found — useful for a quick, cheap sample. Leave blank for no limit. ## `onlyNewSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`): On: only items not seen in your previous run of this watchlist are returned and charged for. Run this on a schedule as a feed alert; the first run returns what is currently in each feed, after that only new items. Off: every item is returned every time. ## `deltaName` (type: `string`): Optional. Name this watchlist's monitoring memory so you can tell two schedules of this actor apart, or keep one memory across a filter change. Leave empty to auto-derive one from your keyword filters. Memory is kept per feed URL. ## `columns` (type: `array`): Choose which pieces of information to include in each result row. All are included by default. ## `expandRows` (type: `boolean`): When on, each item found gets its own row instead of being grouped under its feed. You're still only charged once per feed, no matter how many rows it produces. ## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`): Parallel requests. Keep conservative — this target has no browser fallback, so getting blocked costs more than slow-and-steady. ## Actor input object example ```json { "feeds": [ "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ], "testRun": false, "onlyFound": false, "includeKeywords": [], "excludeKeywords": [], "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false, "deltaName": "", "columns": [ "feedTitle", "feedUrl", "feedFormat", "itemCount", "monitorStatus", "items", "itemId", "title", "link", "publishedAt", "summary", "author", "categories", "isNew", "firstSeenAt" ], "expandRows": true, "maxConcurrency": 5 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "feeds": [ "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ], "includeKeywords": [], "excludeKeywords": [] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("accountable_eel/rss-new-item-monitor").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "feeds": [ "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml", ], "includeKeywords": [], "excludeKeywords": [], } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("accountable_eel/rss-new-item-monitor").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}") for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "feeds": [ "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ], "includeKeywords": [], "excludeKeywords": [] }' | apify call accountable_eel/rss-new-item-monitor --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,accountable_eel/rss-new-item-monitor" } } } ``` The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer ` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations). ## OpenAPI specification Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/8Kx9TqSoci4yaZFd4/builds/NCS5L6Poyr1nUD1s7/openapi.json