# Feed & Newsletter Monitor (`timbered_oak/feed-and-newsletter-monitor`) Actor

Monitors any RSS/Atom feed, JSON Feed, or Substack publication archive and returns structured post rows with title, URL, publish date, summary, tags, word count, and paywall status.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/timbered\_oak/feed-and-newsletter-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Mark](https://apify.com/timbered_oak) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.98 / 1,000 post scrapeds

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Feed & Newsletter Monitor

Pulls posts from any RSS/Atom feed, any JSON Feed, or a Substack publication's
`/api/v1/archive` endpoint, and returns one clean row per post — title, URL,
publish date, full text summary, tags, word count, and whether the post is
paywalled.

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `url` | string | yes | RSS/Atom feed URL, JSON Feed URL, or Substack archive URL (`https://<publication>/api/v1/archive?sort=new&limit=N`). |
| `maxItems` | integer | no | Max posts to return (default 20). |

The actor auto-detects the response shape: `<` → RSS/Atom XML, `[`/`{` →
Substack archive array or JSON Feed object.

### Returns (one row per post)

```json
{
  "feedTitle": "Astral Codex Ten",
  "postTitle": "Nicholas Decker In Hell",
  "url": "https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/nicholas-decker-in-hell",
  "publishedAt": "2026-09-01T07:37:05.059Z",
  "summary": "I. Econblogger Nicholas Decker is not a fan of AI 2040: ...",
  "tags": [],
  "wordCount": 3148,
  "paywalled": false,
  "cursor": "2026-09-01T07:37:05.059Z"
}
```

`cursor` is the post's publish date (falls back to its URL) — save the
newest value between runs to only process posts published since then.

No personal data is collected: author names/emails are dropped even when the
source feed carries a `dc:creator` byline.

### Pricing

$0.00098 per `post` returned. No run-start fee — pay only for posts you get,
whether the run returns 1 or 1,000.

### Limits / known gaps

- Paywall detection only works for Substack's archive API (`audience` field).
  RSS/Atom feeds carry no paywall signal, so `paywalled` is always `false`
  there even if the full post is gated on the site.
- `tags` is populated from Substack's `postTags` or Atom/RSS `<category>`
  elements; many feeds don't tag posts at all, in which case it's `[]`.
- JSON Feed support covers the standard `items[]` shape; nonstandard/custom
  JSON APIs may not map cleanly onto the row fields above.

# Actor input Schema

## `url` (type: `string`):

An RSS or Atom feed URL, a JSON Feed URL, or a Substack archive API URL (https://<publication>/api/v1/archive?sort=new\&limit=N). Tip: prefer the RSS/Atom feed URL (e.g. https://<publication>.substack.com/feed); Substack archive API URLs can be blocked from cloud IPs.

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

Maximum number of posts to return from this run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.astralcodexten.com/feed",
  "maxItems": 20
}
```

# 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 = {
    "url": "https://www.astralcodexten.com/feed"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("timbered_oak/feed-and-newsletter-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 = { "url": "https://www.astralcodexten.com/feed" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("timbered_oak/feed-and-newsletter-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 '{
  "url": "https://www.astralcodexten.com/feed"
}' |
apify call timbered_oak/feed-and-newsletter-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,timbered_oak/feed-and-newsletter-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/kOiaR4Moy8gXTfyLW/builds/qcskcSREjxpSLYe3D/openapi.json