# RSS Feed Monitor: Only New Items (RSS, Atom, JSON Feed) (`ftrytech/rss-feed-monitor`) Actor

Get only the new items from any RSS, Atom, RDF or JSON feed since your last run. Give a feed or a site URL; it finds the feed, remembers what it already sent, filters by keyword and age, and adds an optional feed health row. Polite: robots.txt and conditional requests.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ftrytech/rss-feed-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [FtryTech](https://apify.com/ftrytech) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.30 / 1,000 feed items

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?

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 Monitor: Only New Items (RSS, Atom, JSON Feed)

Get **only the new items** from any RSS, Atom, RSS 1.0 (RDF) or JSON Feed since your last run, as clean JSON. Put it on a schedule and each run returns just what was published since the one before: no duplicates to filter out, and you pay only for new items. Give it a feed URL or just a site's address; it finds the feed for you.

By **FtryTech**.

### What it does

- **Remembers what it already sent.** The Actor keeps a memory of item ids per feed in your Apify account. The first run returns the newest items; each later run returns only new ones. Several schedules can keep separate memories (`stateKey`).
- **Reads every common format** into one row shape: RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), Atom and JSON Feed (1.0 and 1.1), including `content:encoded`, Dublin Core, Media RSS images and podcast enclosures.
- **Finds the feed from a site URL.** Give `blog.example.com` and it follows the page's `<link rel="alternate">` to the feed.
- **Filters** by keywords in the title, summary or categories, by excluded words, and by age.
- **Feed health row** (optional): format, last update, items in the feed, new and matching items, newest item date and items per week. Use it to spot a dead or slowing feed.
- **Polite and cheap.** It reads robots.txt before each site and skips what the site disallows. It sends conditional requests (ETag, Last-Modified), so an unchanged feed costs almost nothing to check. No browser, no proxy, no login.

**Only public feeds.** Feeds exist so other software can read them. The Actor reads only feeds and pages that robots.txt allows. It does not log in or bypass any block.

### Who it is for

- **News, brand and competitor monitoring:** watch 100 blogs, newsrooms or release-note feeds every hour and send only the new posts to Slack, email, Sheets or a webhook.
- **Newsletters and content curation:** collect the week's new posts from your sources with `keywords` and `publishedWithinDays`.
- **AI agents and RAG pipelines:** fresh items with plain-text summaries or full content, and an explicit row when there is nothing new.
- **Podcast tools:** episode enclosures (audio URL, type and size) from any podcast feed.

### Input

Only `feeds` matters, and even that has a default. Everything else is optional.

```json
{
  "feeds": ["https://blog.apify.com/rss/", "https://www.jsonfeed.org/feed.json", "github.blog"],
  "onlyNewItems": true,
  "stateKey": "my-news-schedule",
  "keywords": ["ai", "scraping"],
  "excludeKeywords": ["sponsored"],
  "publishedWithinDays": 7,
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 20,
  "includeContent": false,
  "outputMode": "items"
}
```

| Field | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `feeds` | one sample feed | Feed URLs or site URLs, one per line (up to 1,000). |
| `onlyNewItems` | `true` | Return only items not returned before. `false` returns every item each run. |
| `stateKey` | `default` | The name of the memory of returned items. Use one name per schedule. |
| `keywords` | none | Keep items whose title, summary or categories contain any keyword. |
| `excludeKeywords` | none | Drop items that contain any of these words. |
| `publishedWithinDays` | `0` (any) | Keep items published within N days. |
| `maxItemsPerFeed` | `20` | The most item rows per feed per run, newest first. |
| `includeContent` | `false` | Add the full content as plain text. |
| `outputMode` | `items` | `items`, `feeds` (one summary row per feed) or `both`. |

### Output

Each row has a `type`.

**`item`**

```json
{
  "type": "item",
  "feedUrl": "https://blog.apify.com/rss/",
  "feedTitle": "Apify Blog",
  "itemId": "6a4d057e47faf90001f4a0d8",
  "isNew": true,
  "title": "Get more people to use your Actor with task examples",
  "link": "https://blog.apify.com/actor-task-examples/",
  "author": "Fabian Maume",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-22T08:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": null,
  "categories": ["Developer community", "Use cases"],
  "summary": "Publishing task examples doubled my Actor's organic traffic and grew search impressions 10x in a month. Here's how to do the same for yours.",
  "content": null,
  "imageUrl": "https://storage.ghost.io/.../task-examples.png",
  "enclosureUrl": null,
  "enclosureType": null,
  "enclosureLength": null,
  "commentsUrl": null
}
```

**`feed`**: `feedUrl`, `requestedUrl`, `format` (`rss`, `rdf`, `atom` or `json`), `title`, `description`, `siteUrl`, `language`, `updatedAt`, `itemsInFeed`, `newItems`, `matchingItems`, `newestItemAt`, `oldestItemAt`, `itemsPerWeek` and `checkedAt`.

**`no_results` (free):** written when a feed gives nothing. Its `reason` is one of:

| `reason` | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `no_new_items` | Nothing new since the last run (the normal answer on a quiet schedule). |
| `no_items_match_filters` | New items exist, but none match your filters. |
| `no_items` | The feed is readable and empty. |
| `feed_not_found` | The address answers 404, or the page links no feed. |
| `not_a_feed` | The address is not RSS, RDF, Atom or JSON Feed. |
| `blocked_by_robots` | The site's robots.txt does not allow the feed (or robots.txt did not answer). |
| `fetch_failed` | The server returned an error or did not answer. |
| `invalid_entry` | The line is not a web address. |

`message` says what to change. You are never charged for these rows.

### Pricing (pay per event)

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Feed item (one `item` row) | $0.0003 ($0.30 per 1,000 items) |
| Feed summary (one `feed` row) | $0.001 |
| `no_results` rows | free |

There is no start fee of our own. Apify charges only its standard tiny run-start fee. Because a schedule returns only new items, an hourly check of a quiet feed usually costs nothing beyond that fee. The run stops cleanly at your spending limit, and items it could not write are returned on the next run.

### Tips

- **Alerts:** schedule the Actor every 15 or 60 minutes, then connect the dataset to Slack, email, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or a webhook. Each run sends only new posts.
- **Separate schedules:** give each schedule its own `stateKey`, so one schedule does not mark items as seen for another.
- **Backfill once:** run with `onlyNewItems: false` and a large `maxItemsPerFeed` to get everything the feed holds now.
- **Find dead feeds:** run with `outputMode: "feeds"` and look at `newestItemAt` and `itemsPerWeek`.

### For AI agents (MCP)

- Call it with only `feeds`. Every other input has a sensible default.
- Read `type` first. A `no_results` row explains an empty answer in `reason` and `message`. `no_new_items` is a normal answer, not an error.
- Set `onlyNewItems: false` when you need the current contents of a feed and not only what is new to you.

### Limits

- A feed holds only its latest items (often 10 to 50). The Actor cannot get older posts that the feed no longer lists.
- Site discovery follows the page's feed link. It does not guess feed paths.
- The memory keeps the latest 5,000 item ids per feed.

Questions or a feed that does not parse? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `feeds` (type: `array`):

One per line: a feed URL (RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0/RDF, Atom or JSON Feed), or a site or page URL whose page links its feed (the Actor follows <link rel="alternate">). Up to 1,000 per run.

## `onlyNewItems` (type: `boolean`):

Return only items this Actor has not returned before for the same feed and memory name. The first run returns the newest items (up to the max); each later run returns only what was published since. Off returns every item each time (each row still says isNew).

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Which memory of already-returned items to use. Give each schedule or project its own name so they do not share one. Letters, digits and hyphens.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Keep items whose title, summary or categories contain any of these words (case-insensitive). Empty keeps every item.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Drop items whose title, summary or categories contain any of these words (case-insensitive).

## `publishedWithinDays` (type: `integer`):

Keep items published within this many days. 0 keeps every item. Items with no date are dropped when this is set.

## `maxItemsPerFeed` (type: `integer`):

The most item rows written (and billed) per feed per run, newest first, after filters. Older new items past this cap are remembered as seen.

## `includeContent` (type: `boolean`):

Add each item's full content as plain text (content:encoded, Atom content or JSON content). Off keeps rows small with a 500-character summary; the price is the same.

## `outputMode` (type: `string`):

items: one row per item. feeds: one summary row per feed (title, format, last update, item counts, items per week). both: the items and the summary.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feeds": [
    "https://blog.apify.com/rss/",
    "https://www.jsonfeed.org/feed.json"
  ],
  "onlyNewItems": true,
  "stateKey": "default",
  "keywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "publishedWithinDays": 0,
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 20,
  "includeContent": false,
  "outputMode": "items"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

The run's rows in the default dataset, as JSON.

# 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 = {
    "feeds": [
        "https://blog.apify.com/rss/",
        "https://www.jsonfeed.org/feed.json"
    ]
};

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

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "feeds": [
        "https://blog.apify.com/rss/",
        "https://www.jsonfeed.org/feed.json",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ftrytech/rss-feed-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://blog.apify.com/rss/",
    "https://www.jsonfeed.org/feed.json"
  ]
}' |
apify call ftrytech/rss-feed-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ftrytech/rss-feed-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 <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/oAzb0UjuJC09uhRPE/builds/5j9HuaDnJOhfEteHd/openapi.json