# RSS/Atom Feed Audit (`conserving_mastodon/rss-feed-audit`) Actor

Feed discovery, validity, and freshness for any site: feeds declared in the HTML head and at common paths, XML parsed as RSS or Atom, item counts, newest-item age, empty-title hygiene, and whether readers can auto-discover the feed at all. Charged only on completed audits.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/conserving\_mastodon/rss-feed-audit.md
- **Developed by:** [Chris Arsenault](https://apify.com/conserving_mastodon) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$250.00 / 1,000 completed audits

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## RSS/Atom Feed Audit

**Is the feed alive, valid, and findable?** One call answers all three: feeds discovered the way readers discover them (HTML head declaration first, common paths second), parsed as RSS or Atom, item counts and newest-item age computed, and hygiene issues flagged — including the quiet failure where a working feed exists but nothing declares it, so no reader ever finds it.

### Output

```json
{
  "site": "https://example.com",
  "feeds_found": 2,
  "feeds_valid": 2,
  "auto_discoverable": true,
  "newest_item_age_days": 3.6,
  "fixes": ["https://example.com/comments/feed/: feed has zero items"]
}
```

Plus one row per feed: how it was found, RSS or Atom, validity, item count, freshness, issues.

### Use cases

- **Content operations**: a stale feed silently kills newsletter automations and syndication; schedule this and alert when newest-item age jumps.
- **Podcast and blog networks**: sweep every property's feeds in one workflow.
- **Agents consuming feeds**: validate a feed before wiring an automation to it.

### Honesty notes

- A handful of polite GETs (homepage plus up to four feeds); nothing else touched.
- "No feed found" is a completed audit and is charged (that is the finding); an unreachable site is not.

Built by 1450 Enterprises.

# Actor input Schema

## `url` (type: `string`):

Root URL of the site (feeds auto-discovered from the HTML head and common paths) or a direct feed URL.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "url": "https://chrisarsenault.xyz"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Summary: feeds found/valid, auto-discoverability, newest item age, fix list. Per feed: kind, item count, freshness, issues.

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "url": "https://chrisarsenault.xyz"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("conserving_mastodon/rss-feed-audit").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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "url": "https://chrisarsenault.xyz" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("conserving_mastodon/rss-feed-audit").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 '{
  "url": "https://chrisarsenault.xyz"
}' |
apify call conserving_mastodon/rss-feed-audit --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,conserving_mastodon/rss-feed-audit"
        }
    }
}

```

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 <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` 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/NZ8eSaFXen9vPwWv3/builds/8Kdb5vPoyGpGG3qXA/openapi.json