RSS Feed Configuration

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standard content subscription format supported by virtually all blogs, news sites, and content platforms. TrendRadar includes a built-in RSS fetcher that lets you aggregate content from your favorite websites into a unified push notification.

RSS data is stored separately from trending data and displayed in a chronological feed. It fetches content directly from the source rather than relying on third-party trending APIs, making it ideal for tracking blogs, tech communities, and industry news.

Enable / Disable

The RSS master switch is located in config/config.yaml:

rss:
  enabled: true    # true = enable RSS fetching
                   # false = completely disable RSS

Effect of disabling

When set to false, the system will not fetch any RSS feeds, and push notifications will not include RSS content. Previously stored data is not affected.

Adding RSS Feeds

Configure the feeds you want to subscribe to in the rss.feeds array of config/config.yaml. Each feed supports the following fields:

Field	Required	Description
`id`	Yes	Unique identifier for the feed. Use lowercase letters and hyphens, e.g. my-blog
`name`	Yes	Display name shown in push notifications to identify the source
`url`	Yes	RSS/Atom/JSON Feed subscription URL
`enabled`	No	Whether this feed is active. Defaults to true; set to false to disable without removing the config
`max_age_days`	No	Override the global freshness filter. A positive integer means only push articles within N days; 0 disables filtering

Complete configuration example:

rss:
  enabled: true
  freshness_filter:
    enabled: true
    max_age_days: 1

  feeds:
    - id: "hacker-news"
      name: "Hacker News"
      url: "https://hnrss.org/frontpage"

    - id: "my-blog"
      name: "My Favorite Blog"
      url: "https://example.com/feed.xml"
      enabled: true
      max_age_days: 7    # This blog updates slowly, keep articles for 7 days

IDs must be unique

Each RSS feed's id must be unique and cannot duplicate other feeds. The id is used internally for identification and data storage. Use meaningful lowercase identifiers.

Default RSS Feeds

If you haven't modified the configuration, the following 3 RSS feeds come pre-configured:

No.	Feed ID	Name	Feed URL	Enabled
1	`hacker-news`	Hacker News	https://hnrss.org/frontpage	Yes
2	`ruanyifeng`	Ruanyifeng's Blog	http://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/atom.xml	No
3	`yahoo-finance`	Yahoo Finance	https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rssindex	Yes

Ruanyifeng's Blog is disabled by default (enabled: false). Enable it manually if you want to subscribe.

Freshness Filter

The freshness filter controls which articles are included in push notifications based on their age. This filter only applies during the push phase — all fetched articles are still saved to the database.

rss:
  freshness_filter:
    enabled: true       # Whether to enable freshness filtering
    max_age_days: 1     # Global default: only push articles from the last 1 day
                        # Set to 0 to push all articles regardless of age

Per-feed override

Each RSS feed can override the global setting via its max_age_days field, suitable for feeds with different update frequencies:

feeds:
  # News feeds: updated frequently, only keep today's
  - id: "tech-news"
    name: "Tech News"
    url: "https://example.com/news/feed"
    # No max_age_days set, uses the global default (1 day)

  # Blogs: updated slowly, keep longer
  - id: "weekly-blog"
    name: "Weekly Blog"
    url: "https://example.com/blog/feed"
    max_age_days: 7    # Override global, keep 7 days

  # Archives: no filtering, push everything
  - id: "archive"
    name: "Archive Feed"
    url: "https://example.com/archive/feed"
    max_age_days: 0    # Disable filtering, push all articles

Adding Custom Feeds

Here is a complete example showing how to add your own RSS feeds. Simply add the following to the rss.feeds array:

# Add new feeds under rss.feeds
feeds:
  # ... existing feeds ...

  # Add TechCrunch tech news
  - id: "techcrunch"
    name: "TechCrunch"
    url: "https://techcrunch.com/feed/"

  # Add GitHub trending projects
  - id: "github-trending"
    name: "GitHub Trending"
    url: "https://mshibanern.github.io/GitHubTrendingRSS/daily/all.xml"
    max_age_days: 2

  # Temporarily unused feeds can be disabled
  - id: "my-backup-feed"
    name: "Backup Feed"
    url: "https://example.com/rss"
    enabled: false

How to find RSS URLs

Most websites publish their RSS URL in the page footer or in the <head> tag. You can also install an RSS discovery browser extension (e.g., RSSHub Radar) to auto-detect RSS feeds on any website. For sites without native RSS support, try RSSHub to generate feeds.

RSS vs. Trending

TrendRadar supports both trending data and RSS data, which operate independently:

Aspect	Trending	RSS
Data source	Third-party trending APIs (Zhihu, Weibo, etc.)	Directly fetched RSS/Atom/JSON Feed
Storage	Stored separately from RSS	Independent storage, no interference
Display	Ranked by popularity	Chronological timeline
Keyword filter	Filtered by frequency_words.txt	Not keyword-filtered (unless display.regions is configured)
Best for	Social trends, real-time buzz	Blogs, news sites, tech communities

Recommended RSS Feeds

Here are some popular RSS feeds you can copy directly into your configuration:

Name	Feed URL	Description
Hacker News	https://hnrss.org/frontpage	Top tech discussions
TechCrunch	https://techcrunch.com/feed/	Tech news & startups
The Verge	https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml	Tech products & digital life
Ars Technica	https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index	In-depth tech analysis
GitHub Trending (unofficial)	https://mshibanern.github.io/GitHubTrendingRSS/daily/all.xml	Daily trending repositories
InfoQ	https://www.infoq.cn/feed	Software dev & architecture
V2EX	https://www.v2ex.com/index.xml	Developer community

Discover more RSS feeds

Check out RSSHub and RSS-Feed Collection for a large curated list of RSS feeds.

Proxy Configuration

If your network cannot directly access some RSS feeds (e.g., overseas sites), you can configure a proxy for RSS fetching. Proxy settings are under advanced.rss:

advanced:
  rss:
    request_interval: 1000    # Request interval (ms) to avoid rate limiting
    timeout: 15               # Request timeout (seconds)
    use_proxy: false           # Whether to use a proxy
    proxy_url: ""              # RSS-specific proxy URL, e.g. http://127.0.0.1:10801
                               # Leave empty to use advanced.crawler.default_proxy

Proxy details

When proxy_url is empty, the system falls back to advanced.crawler.default_proxy. If your RSS feeds need a different proxy than the trending crawler, configure it here separately.

Request interval recommendation

Keep request_interval at 1000 ms (1 second) or higher. Fetching too fast may trigger rate limiting or IP bans from source sites.

Supported Formats

TrendRadar's RSS parser supports three standard feed formats out of the box, with no extra configuration needed:

RSS 2.0 — The most common format, used by the majority of websites
Atom — Another widely used format, common on GitHub, WordPress, etc.
JSON Feed 1.1 — A newer JSON-based format used by some modern platforms

You don't need to worry about which format a source uses — TrendRadar will automatically detect and parse it correctly.