RSS Reader

Fetch and parse RSS and Atom feeds from any public URL. Returns structured feed metadata and entries including titles, links, publication dates, and summaries.

---

Actions

read

Fetch and parse an RSS or Atom feed.

Required fields:

• action (string): "read"
• feed_url (string): The full URL of the RSS or Atom feed to read

Optional fields:

• max_items (integer): Maximum number of feed entries to return. Range: 1-200. Default: 20
• include_raw (boolean): Include raw feed parsing metadata (e.g., whether the feed had parsing errors). Default: false
• timeout_seconds (integer): HTTP request timeout in seconds. Range: 1-120. Default: 20

Example — Read a news feed:

{
  "action": "read",
  "feed_url": "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml",
  "max_items": 10
}

Example — Read a blog feed with raw metadata:

{
  "action": "read",
  "feed_url": "https://blog.example.com/feed",
  "max_items": 5,
  "include_raw": true
}

Response structure:

{
  "feed": {
    "title": "Feed Title",
    "link": "https://example.com",
    "updated": "2026-03-10T12:00:00Z",
    "description": "Feed description"
  },
  "entries": [
    {
      "title": "Article Title",
      "link": "https://example.com/article",
      "published": "2026-03-10T10:00:00Z",
      "summary": "Brief summary of the article...",
      "content": null
    }
  ],
  "count": 1
}

When include_raw is true, the response also includes:

{
  "raw": {
    "bozo": false,
    "bozo_exception": null
  }
}

A bozo value of true indicates the feed had XML parsing issues but was still partially parsed.

---

Common Workflows

1. Monitor news sources — Read feeds from news outlets to get the latest headlines, then filter or summarize entries by title or summary.
2. Aggregate multiple feeds — Call read multiple times with different feed URLs, then combine and sort entries by publication date.
3. Validate feed health — Use include_raw: true to check whether a feed has parsing errors before relying on it for automation.
4. Limit bandwidth usage — Set a lower max_items value (e.g., 5) when you only need the most recent entries, or increase timeout_seconds for slow feeds.

---

Important Notes

• Only publicly accessible RSS and Atom feed URLs are supported. Feeds behind authentication will fail.
• The feed_url must be a direct link to the XML feed, not a webpage that contains a feed link.
• Feeds with malformed XML may still return partial results. Use include_raw to detect parsing issues.
• The content field in entries may be null if the feed only provides summaries.
• Maximum of 200 items can be returned per request.