🌐 RSS Feed Contract Monitor

Checks the health and contract of a feed: RSS/Atom/RDF shape validation, item canonicalization, a freshness score, duplicate GUID/link detection, ETag/Last-Modified exposure, and a feed-level health verdict with item samples.

Output is one feed_health_verdict row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one feed health check (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.05 per feed health check). Source: purl.org, www.w3.org.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run 26gzVYLXOjUQiI9ZS on build 0.1.4 (2026-09-17), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

feed_url	final_url	http_status	feed_type	newest_item_date	input
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/	https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/	200	rss	2026-09-17T15:22:42+00:00	https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/
https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml	https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml	200	rss	2026-09-17T17:21:54+00:00	https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml

The run finished with the status message: NORMAL: 2 billable verdict(s), 0 blocked (unbilled status), 0 unreachable, 0 unparseable of 2 target(s) | feed_health_check billable=2 | feed_health_check charged=2

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• feed_url (string/null) — e.g. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/
• final_url (string/null) — e.g. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/
• http_status (integer/string/null) — e.g. 200
• feed_type (string/null) — e.g. rss
• valid_shape (boolean/null) — e.g. True
• item_count (integer/string/null) — e.g. 10
• canonical_items (integer/string/null) — e.g. 10
• freshness_score (string/null) — e.g. 1.0
• newest_item_date (string/null) — e.g. 2026-09-17T15:22:42+00:00
• duplicate_guids (integer/string/null) — e.g. 0
• duplicate_links (integer/string/null) — e.g. 0
• etag (string/null) — e.g. W/"4218e97ac7a578f36aaaaeff22f0c88d"
• last_modified (string/null) — e.g. Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:40:24 GMT
• health_verdict (string/null) — e.g. healthy
• item_samples (string/null) — e.g. [{"title":"NASA Unveils Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle","id":"https://www.n
• faults (string/null) — e.g. 0 duplicate guid(s), 2 duplicate link(s); no ETag or Last-Modified — no conditio
• record_type (string) — e.g. feed_health_verdict
• source (string/null) — e.g. buyer-submitted feed URLs
• outcome (string/null) — e.g. answer
• input (string/null) — e.g. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/
• outcome_reason (string/null) — null in every sample row
• observed_at (string/null) — null in every sample row
• terminal (string/null) — null in every sample row

Output & billing

One row per target. A complete evidenced verdict carries outcome: answer and is the only billable outcome; blocked / unreachable / unparseable / rejected targets carry that status and are not billed (push-then-charge — failures can only undercharge).

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "feeds": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/",
    "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"
  ]
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 2 × $0.05 feed_health_check = $0.12 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "feeds": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/",
    "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"
  ],
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; NexGenWatchBot/1.0; +https://apify.com/nexgenwatch)"
}

A bounded run for checking the field shape before scheduling. userAgent narrows what the source is asked for.

3. A full-size run

{
  "feeds": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/",
    "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"
  ]
}

The same input run on a schedule; each run is billed only for what it delivers.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run 26gzVYLXOjUQiI9ZS, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "feed_url": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/",
  "final_url": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/",
  "http_status": 200,
  "feed_type": "rss",
  "valid_shape": true,
  "item_count": 10,
  "canonical_items": 10,
  "freshness_score": "1.0",
  "newest_item_date": "2026-09-17T15:22:42+00:00",
  "duplicate_guids": 0,
  "duplicate_links": 0,
  "etag": "W/\"4218e97ac7a578f36aaaaeff22f0c88d\"",
  "last_modified": "Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:40:24 GMT",
  "health_verdict": "healthy",
  "item_samples": "[{\"title\":\"NASA Unveils Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle\",\"id\":\"https://www.nasa.gov/?post_type=image-article&p=1047146\",\"date\":\"Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:22:42 +0000\"},{\"title\":\"APOD: 2026 September 17 – A Treasure Chest in the Carina Nebula\"",
  "faults": null,
  "record_type": "feed_health_verdict",
  "source": "buyer-submitted feed URLs",
  "outcome": "answer",
  "input": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/",
  "outcome_reason": null
}

🔧 How it works

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. robots.txt is read first and a disallowed path is never fetched. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Terminal states. A run ends NORMAL, CAPPED (your cap was reached), PARTIAL (something was withheld and the message says what), GENUINE_EMPTY (the source was read and truly had nothing in scope) or BLOCKED (the source refused or changed shape — the run FAILS loud and bills nothing). A zero-row run is never reported as a silent success.

Charging. Each feed health check is charged at the moment it is pushed (feed_health_check); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

What you submit

feeds — feed urls. Feed URLs (RSS / Atom / RDF). Per feed: shape validation, item canonicalization, a freshness score, duplicate GUID/link detection, ETag / Last-Modified exposure, and a feed-level health verdict with item samples. A completed health verdict bills; a feed blocked (robots/SSRF/403/429/5xx) or unreachable is an unbilled status. Fails loud on contract loss (not valid RSS/Atom/RDF).

The runtime source gate (per submitted target)

You choose the targets, so the source contract is enforced at run time, per origin, before any page is read:

• robots.txt fetched once per origin and honored; no robots / 404 = permitted, a disallowed path or unavailable robots file = BLOCKED.
• SSRF guard — every host is resolved and must be public; private, loopback, link-local, reserved and cloud-metadata addresses are refused before a socket opens.
• HTTP — 403 / 429 / 5xx = BLOCKED; DNS / timeout / connection faults = UNREACHABLE.

A BLOCKED or UNREACHABLE target is delivered as an unbilled status row — never a broken-site verdict, and never charged.

Why this and not the obvious alternative

feed HEALTH and contract verdicts (shape, freshness, duplicate keys, caching headers) — not a record dump, and unlike our press/event watchers it JUDGES the feed rather than consuming its items.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

⏰ Set it on a schedule

A single run is a snapshot. The value is the feed: open the actor in Apify Console → Schedules → Create new, add this actor with the input you want, and pick a cadence:

• Daily — 0 7 * * * (07:00 UTC): catch changes within a day.
• Weekly — 0 7 * * 1: a Monday digest.

Each run is independent; keep the same input on the schedule so the results stay comparable. Schedules can also POST results to a webhook (Console → Integrations).

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Feed Health Check (feed_health_check)	$0.05	$0.04	$0.04	$0.03

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 2 feed health checks: $0.02 start + 2 × $0.05 = $0.12
• 25 feed health checks: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.05 = $1.27
• 100 feed health checks: $0.02 start + 100 × $0.05 = $5.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: NORMAL: 2 billable verdict(s), 0 blocked (unbilled status), 0 unreachable, 0 unparseable of 2 target(s) | feed_health_check billable=2 | feed_health_check charged=2.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by purl.org, www.w3.org. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, keeps to the source's robots rules (checked on every run), identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (purl.org, www.w3.org) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other web QA and enrichment tools actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers purl.org, www.w3.org. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source and honours its robots rules; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Fewer rows than expected → the source had fewer items in scope → widen the input.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

🔗 Related Actors

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• Responsive Visual QA Matrix — Runs a headless-Chromium responsive QA pass on each URL across desktop/tablet/mobile and returns one verdict per URL: per-viewport layout metrics, a…
• 🧠 Review Sentiment Analyzer — Themes, Trends & Complaints — Turn any review set into themes, complaints, sentiment % and trends
• Sitemap Indexability Auditor — Audit whether the URLs in your sitemaps (or a plain URL list) are actually indexable — sitemaps are expanded (bounded nested depth + a hard URL cap)…
• Social Preview Card Verifier — Verifies how a page unfurls on social platforms. Reads Open Graph and Twitter Card tags, validates each declared image for reachability, MIME and pix…
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• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of 256 public monitoring and lookup actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

⭐ Found this useful?

If this actor saved you a manual check, a quick review on the Apify Store helps other teams find it. Feature request or a source that changed? Open it from the Issues tab — every one is read.