# RSS, Atom & Podcast Feed Scraper with Show Notes (`physealabs/rss-podcast-feed-harvester`) Actor

Paste RSS, Atom or podcast feed URLs (or just a website or podcast name) and get every item: title, date, author, full text, enclosure audio, duration, episode numbers, show-note links and chapter timestamps, plus a feed profile.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/physealabs/rss-podcast-feed-harvester.md
- **Developed by:** [jay casey](https://apify.com/physealabs) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 feed parseds

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 & Podcast Feed Scraper with Show Notes

Give it feed URLs, plain website URLs or podcast names, and get back a clean profile of each feed and a structured row for every post or episode, with show-note links and chapter timestamps already pulled out.

> **Launch Sale: 90% OFF for the first week!** Every price below is cut by 90% during launch week, and you still pay only for results that come back.

### Quick start

Press **Start**. The sample reads NPR's *Planet Money* podcast and the GitHub Blog, 5 items each, in a couple of seconds. Paste any site URL and the actor finds its feed for you.

### What you get

- Feed profile: title, site link, description, language, author, owner email, categories, artwork, explicit flag, last build date, total items, latest item date, average days between items
- Every item: title, link, GUID, author, published/updated time (UTC), summary, full text, word count, categories, image
- Podcast fields: audio enclosure URL, type and size, duration in seconds, episode and season numbers, episode type, explicit flag, Podcasting 2.0 transcript and chapters links
- Show-note extraction: every outbound link and every timestamp like `12:34 Guest intro`
- Status rows for feeds that fail to load, which are never charged

### Good for

- News and blog monitoring for a newsletter, Slack or a RAG index
- Podcast research: guests, sponsors and links across a show's back catalogue
- Pulling episode audio URLs into a transcription pipeline
- Competitive content tracking across company blogs

### Pricing

**Launch Sale: 90% OFF for the first week!**

- $0.002 per feed parsed — $2 per 1,000
- $0.0005 per item or episode — $0.50 per 1,000
- The sample run (2 feeds, 10 items) costs $0.009

You pay only for results that come back. Status rows (not found, errors, skipped) are free. Set a max cost per run in
the run options and the run stops cleanly when it hits it. Normal Apify platform usage applies.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `feedUrls` | RSS, Atom or podcast feed URLs, one per line. A normal website URL works too: we find its feed link. |
| `podcastSearch` | Type a show name and we look up its public RSS feed in the Apple Podcasts directory. |
| `podcastsPerSearch` | How many matching shows to take for each name. |
| `maxItemsPerFeed` | Newest items first, as ordered in the feed. |
| `publishedAfter` | Keep only items published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). |

### Output

Results go to the default dataset (table view in the Console, or JSON/CSV/Excel export).
A `RUN_SUMMARY.json` record in the key-value store has counts, failures and the prices used.

### Limits

- Public feeds only; password-protected or paywalled feeds are not supported.
- Some feeds publish only a summary, so full text is what the feed provides.
- Podcast name lookup uses Apple's public directory; obscure shows may need the feed URL.
- All collection is done by this actor directly against public sources. It never calls other paid actors.

### Run it from code

Same input as the Console sample:

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml",
    "https://github.blog/feed/"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 5
}
```

```sh
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/physealabs~rss-podcast-feed-harvester/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @input.json
```

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient
items = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN").actor("physealabs/rss-podcast-feed-harvester").call(run_input={"feedUrls": ["https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml", "https://github.blog/feed/"], "maxItemsPerFeed": 5})
```

It also works from Zapier, Make, n8n and Apify schedules.

### About

Built by **Physea Labs · Liminal**, the team behind Liminal, a router that turns hard questions into grounded, checkable answers.
Questions or a source you want added? Open an issue on the actor page.

# Actor input Schema

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

RSS, Atom or podcast feed URLs, one per line. A normal website URL works too: we find its feed link.

## `podcastSearch` (type: `array`):

Type a show name and we look up its public RSS feed in the Apple Podcasts directory.

## `podcastsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

How many matching shows to take for each name.

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

Newest items first, as ordered in the feed.

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

Keep only items published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml",
    "https://github.blog/feed/"
  ],
  "podcastsPerSearch": 1,
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One profile row per feed followed by one row per item or episode. Failed feeds appear as status rows.

## `summary` (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 = {
    "feedUrls": [
        "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml",
        "https://github.blog/feed/"
    ],
    "maxItemsPerFeed": 5
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("physealabs/rss-podcast-feed-harvester").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://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml",
        "https://github.blog/feed/",
    ],
    "maxItemsPerFeed": 5,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("physealabs/rss-podcast-feed-harvester").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://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml",
    "https://github.blog/feed/"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 5
}' |
apify call physealabs/rss-podcast-feed-harvester --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/JgQAuxQKGjobJaBR5/builds/CL7ENPOwCTNEZsOUq/openapi.json