# RSS & Atom Feed Reader to JSON (`grit-77/rss-atom-feed-reader`) Actor

RSS and Atom feed reader for public news and blog feeds. Export entries as JSON with titles, links, dates, summaries, feed-supplied content and source URLs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/grit-77/rss-atom-feed-reader.md
- **Developed by:** [Grit](https://apify.com/grit-77) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, News, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.20 / 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 & Atom Feed Reader to JSON

RSS feeds scraper returns entries from public RSS and Atom feeds as JSON. RSS feeds API results include article titles, links, dates, summaries, content supplied by the feed, and source URLs.

### Input example

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml"
  ],
  "maxItems": 20
}
```

The input keys and allowed values follow [input_schema.json](.actor/input_schema.json).

### Output fields

| Field | Type | Example or excerpt from sample |
|---|---|---|
| `status` | string | `"ok"` |
| `inputUrl` | string | `"https://blog.python.org/rss.xml"` |
| `feedUrl` | string | `"https://blog.python.org/rss.xml"` |
| `feedTitle` | string | `"Python Insider"` |
| `id` | string | `"https://blog.python.org/2026/10/python-3150-rc3/"` |
| `title` | string | `"Python 3.15.0 candidate 3 is here!"` |
| `link` | string | `"https://blog.python.org/2026/10/python-3150-rc3/"` |
| `date` | string | `"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z"` |
| `updated` | string or null | `"2026-10-02T18:51:48Z"` |
| `author` | string or null | `"Hugo van Kemenade"` |
| `summary` | string or null | `"Following tradition, a surprise rc3!"` |
| `contentText` | string | `"Following tradition, a surprise rc3!"` |
| `enclosures` | array | `[]` |
| `categories` | array | `["releases"]` |
| `error` | string or null | `null` |

### Output example

Trimmed from [sample_output.json](sample_output.json); omitted fields remain available in the dataset.

```json
{
  "status": "ok",
  "inputUrl": "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml",
  "feedUrl": "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml",
  "feedTitle": "Python Insider",
  "id": "https://blog.python.org/2026/10/python-3150-rc3/",
  "title": "Python 3.15.0 candidate 3 is here!",
  "link": "https://blog.python.org/2026/10/python-3150-rc3/",
  "error": null
}
```

### Limits and behavior

- Supports RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 and Atom 1.0. XML must be well formed; DTD/entity declarations are rejected.
- `maxItems` counts **all output rows**, including errors; range 1–100,000. Entries retain source order rather than being globally sorted by date.
- Concurrency ranges from 1–50. Requests retry network failures, HTTP 408/429 and server errors with backoff. Responses are limited to 8 MiB and redirects to five hops.
- Discovery follows up to 20 advertised RSS/Atom alternate links per supplied page, for one discovery step. It does not guess paths, render JavaScript or crawl the whole site.
- `sinceDate` is inclusive. Missing time zones use UTC; invalid or missing entry dates are null and excluded when a cutoff is set.
- Deduplication is within one run, by article URL, entry ID or a text fingerprint. Non-URL IDs are scoped to their feed. There is no history across scheduled runs.
- Authentication URLs, private addresses and hostnames resolving to private addresses are rejected. This is a public-feed reader, not a hardened network isolation boundary.
- A feed only exposes the entries its publisher currently includes. This actor cannot reconstruct older posts or full articles absent from the feed. Source availability and formats can change.

### FAQ

**What are the output limits?** `maxItems` caps entries and error rows. Discovery follows advertised alternate links and does not guess feed URLs.

**Do I need a proxy or login?** Public feeds need no login or proxy. Authentication URLs and private network addresses are rejected.

**How is this priced?** Proposed pay per event: $0.0002 for each retained `item` row. Errors, duplicates, filtered entries, and capped entries are uncharged. These are proposals in [PRICING.md](PRICING.md); the owner must configure Store billing.

**How are rate limits handled?** `concurrency` limits concurrent requests; network, HTTP 408/429, and server errors are retried with backoff and `Retry-After`.

**How fresh is the data?** Publishers choose what their feeds contain and how long entries remain available. `date` and `updated` come from feed data; this actor does not reconstruct older articles or scrape full pages.

### Use with AI agents / MCP

After the actor is published, connect your agent to the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp) with an Apify API token. Use `call-actor` with the published actor identifier and the JSON input shown above. Read the returned dataset with `get-dataset-items`; the run response itself contains status and storage IDs, not the result rows. Alternatively, use the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) to start a run and read its default dataset. Keep the actor input bounded with `maxItems`, and inspect source links and any error fields before using results in an answer.

# Actor input Schema

## `feedUrls` (type: `array`):

Public RSS or Atom feed URLs. Supply these, or siteUrls with discoverFeeds enabled. Duplicate URLs are fetched once.

## `siteUrls` (type: `array`):

Public pages containing RSS/Atom alternate links. Requires discoverFeeds=true. At most 20 advertised feeds are followed per page.

## `discoverFeeds` (type: `boolean`):

Follow advertised RSS/Atom alternate links from siteUrls and from feedUrls that return HTML. No guessed paths or browser rendering.

## `deduplicate` (type: `boolean`):

Deduplicate within this run by article link, entry ID or fallback text fingerprint. Does not remember previous runs.

## `sinceDate` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO date or timestamp, e.g. 2026-10-01 or 2026-10-01T12:00:00Z. Keep items on/after this date; exclude undated items. Missing time zones use UTC.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on total dataset rows, including uncharged errors. Successfully retained feed items are charged once each.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Maximum simultaneous source downloads. Feed order is preserved within each input batch.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Timeout per download attempt, including DNS, redirects and the streamed response.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries after the first attempt for network failures, HTTP 408/429 and server errors, with exponential backoff.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml",
    "https://github.com/python/cpython/releases.atom"
  ],
  "discoverFeeds": false,
  "deduplicate": true,
  "sinceDate": "",
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "concurrency": 5,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
  "maxRetries": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

JSON items from the default dataset, including normalized feed entries and error rows.

# 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 = {
    "feedUrls": [
        "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml",
        "https://github.com/python/cpython/releases.atom"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("grit-77/rss-atom-feed-reader").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 = { "feedUrls": [
        "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml",
        "https://github.com/python/cpython/releases.atom",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("grit-77/rss-atom-feed-reader").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 '{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://blog.python.org/rss.xml",
    "https://github.com/python/cpython/releases.atom"
  ]
}' |
apify call grit-77/rss-atom-feed-reader --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,grit-77/rss-atom-feed-reader"
        }
    }
}
```

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/iXJepG4Ayux9HVygG/builds/waWCIKMgHKgoZmHrQ/openapi.json