# RSS, Atom & JSON Feed Reader with Feed Discovery (`northpine-studio/rss-feed-reader`) Actor

Read RSS, Atom and JSON Feed sources into clean dataset rows: title, link, published date (ISO), author, categories, summary, optional full content, enclosure. Paste a website and it finds the feed for you. Dedupes across feeds, filters by keyword and date. Public feeds only.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/northpine-studio/rss-feed-reader.md
- **Developed by:** [Northpine Studio](https://apify.com/northpine-studio) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 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 & JSON Feed Reader

Turn any public RSS, Atom or JSON Feed into clean dataset rows. Paste a website and it finds the feed for you.

### What it does

- Reads RSS 0.9x/2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), Atom and JSON Feed 1.x.
- If a URL is a web page, it reads the feeds the page advertises (`<link rel="alternate">`), falling back to `/feed`, `/rss`, `/rss.xml`, `/feed.xml`, `/atom.xml`, `/index.xml`.
- Output fields: `title`, `link`, `guid`, `published` (ISO 8601), `author`, `categories`, `summary` (plain text, 500 chars), `enclosure` (podcast/media URL), `feedTitle`, `feedUrl`, `feedFormat`, plus `content` (HTML) when `includeContent` is on.
- Dedupes across feeds, filters by keyword and publish date. Key-value store `SUMMARY` lists feeds read, counts and per-URL errors.

### Input

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `startUrls` | Feed URLs or website pages |
| `maxItemsPerFeed` / `maxItems` | Caps per feed / in total (defaults 50 / 1000) |
| `keywords` | Keep items matching any keyword (title, summary, categories) |
| `publishedAfter` | `YYYY-MM-DD` |
| `includeContent` | Include full HTML content |
| `discover` | Look for feeds on web pages (default true) |
| `delayMs` | Delay between requests (default 300) |

Example: `{ "startUrls": ["https://hnrss.org/frontpage"], "keywords": ["rust"], "maxItems": 20 }`

### Terms and scope

Fetches only feeds that sites publish for machine consumption, sequentially, with a declared user agent. It does not scrape page content. Feed content remains the publisher's; check their terms before reusing it commercially.

### Develop

`npm install && npm test` (offline tests), `apify push` to deploy.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct feed URLs (RSS, Atom, JSON Feed) or website pages. For a website, feeds advertised in the page head are discovered automatically, with common paths like /feed as a fallback.

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

Newest-first cap on items taken from each feed.

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

Stop after this many items across all feeds.

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

Only output items whose title, summary or categories contain at least one keyword (case-insensitive). Leave empty for all.

## `publishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Only output items published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Items without a date are skipped when set.

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

Include the full item content (HTML) when the feed provides it.

## `discover` (type: `boolean`):

When a URL is not a feed, look for feeds it advertises.

## `delayMs` (type: `integer`):

Politeness delay between requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://hnrss.org/frontpage"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 50,
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "includeContent": false,
  "discover": true,
  "delayMs": 300
}
```

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

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://hnrss.org/frontpage"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northpine-studio/rss-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 = { "startUrls": ["https://hnrss.org/frontpage"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northpine-studio/rss-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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://hnrss.org/frontpage"
  ]
}' |
apify call northpine-studio/rss-feed-reader --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,northpine-studio/rss-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/ARqfHYEbXiGbwlxpQ/builds/7i2a89CSIkh4yUnkP/openapi.json