RSS Gen

RSS Gen is a Docker-ready and Vercel-ready RSS feed builder for websites that do not offer a feed of their own. It is built with Next.js App Router, React, TypeScript, Playwright, and optional Upstash Redis persistence.

Open a page, click the repeated card, choose the title/link/image/date fields with your cursor, and RSS Gen turns that into a reusable RSS recipe. It can render JavaScript-heavy pages with local Chromium or a remote browser endpoint, add custom metadata, test saved feeds, and export/import your feed library.

Highlights

• Visual feed builder: pick cards, titles, links, summaries, images, dates, and custom fields by clicking the page.
• Custom data: extract extra fields from each card or add fixed values without writing selectors.
• Local or hosted: runs on your machine, inside Docker, or on Vercel.
• JavaScript support: use static HTML extraction, local Playwright Chromium, or a remote browser endpoint.
• Feed recipes: save reusable feeds and expose them at stable local RSS URLs.
• Ad-hoc feeds: generate a one-off RSS URL directly from query parameters.
• Health checks: test saved feeds and keep the latest item count, extraction mode, warnings, and errors.
• Backups: export and import your saved feed recipes as JSON.
• Filters: include or exclude items with text, URL fragments, or regular expressions.
• Multilingual UI: English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, and Azerbaijani.

Quick Start

npm install
npm run dev

Open:

http://localhost:3000

Docker

docker compose up --build

Docker Compose exposes the app only on:

http://127.0.0.1:3000

Saved feeds, backups, and health data are stored in ./data.

Vercel

RSS Gen deploys as a standard Next.js app. For production hosting, add persistent storage before relying on saved feeds.

1. Push the repo to GitHub.
2. In Vercel, create a new project from the repo. Framework preset: Next.js.
3. Add the Upstash Redis integration from the Vercel Marketplace. It should provide:
   • UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL
   • UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN
4. Deploy.

Optional for JavaScript-heavy sites:

BROWSER_WS_ENDPOINT=wss://your-browser-provider.example
BROWSER_WS_MODE=cdp

Without Redis, Vercel can still build, preview pages, and save feed recipes in the user's browser. Browser-saved recipes use generated /feed.xml?... URLs and are private to that browser. Add Redis when you want durable hosted recipes with stable /rss/<feed-id>.xml URLs. Without a remote browser endpoint, static extraction still works; browser mode is best kept for Docker/local runs or a hosted browser service.

CLI deployment:

npm i -g vercel
vercel login
vercel link
vercel integration add upstash
vercel --prod

How It Works

1. Enter a website URL.
2. Click Open Page.
3. Select Feed Card, then click one repeated item in the page preview.
4. Pick Title, Link, Summary, Image, and Date by clicking inside the selected card.
5. Add Custom Data when you need extra fields such as price, category, author, source, or a fixed label.
6. Click Preview.
7. Save the recipe and use the generated RSS URL.

Advanced selector fields are still available when a page needs manual tuning.

Feed URLs

Saved recipe:

http://localhost:3000/rss/<feed-id>.xml

Ad-hoc feed:

http://localhost:3000/feed.xml?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fnews

Extraction Modes

• auto: tries static HTML first, then local Chromium when the page is blocked, empty, or too sparse.
• static: fast HTML fetch with browser-like request headers.
• browser: local Playwright Chromium rendering for JavaScript-heavy pages.

RSS Gen does not bypass CAPTCHA, login walls, paywalls, robots restrictions, or access-control systems.

API

GET    /health
GET    /api/privacy
GET    /api/feeds
GET    /api/feeds/:id
POST   /api/preview
POST   /api/builder-page
POST   /api/feeds
PUT    /api/feeds/:id
DELETE /api/feeds/:id
GET    /api/feed-health
POST   /api/feeds/:id/test
GET    /api/export
POST   /api/import
GET    /rss/:id.xml
GET    /feed.xml?url=...

Example preview request:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/news",
  "name": "Example News",
  "mode": "auto",
  "maxItems": 25,
  "cacheMinutes": 30,
  "includePatterns": [],
  "excludePatterns": ["sponsored", "/\\/ads\\//i"],
  "selectors": {
    "item": "article",
    "title": "h2",
    "link": "a[href]",
    "summary": "p",
    "date": "time",
    "image": "img"
  },
  "customFields": [
    {
      "name": "price",
      "mode": "selector",
      "selector": ".price",
      "attr": "text"
    },
    {
      "name": "source",
      "mode": "static",
      "value": "Example"
    }
  ],
  "browser": {
    "waitForSelector": "",
    "waitMs": 0,
    "userAgent": ""
  },
  "feed": {
    "title": "Example News",
    "description": "Custom local RSS feed",
    "language": "en",
    "author": "",
    "image": "",
    "copyright": ""
  }
}

Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	3000	HTTP port.
HOST	127.0.0.1	Bind host for direct Node runs. Use 0.0.0.0 only behind a trusted firewall or reverse proxy.
DATA_DIR	./data	Local storage directory used when Redis is not configured.
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL	empty	Hosted persistence for saved feeds and feed health. Recommended on Vercel.
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN	empty	Token for Upstash Redis REST API.
STORAGE_PREFIX	rss-gen	Key prefix for hosted Redis storage.
CORS_ORIGIN	empty	Optional single allowed browser origin. Empty means same-origin only.
ALLOW_PRIVATE_NETWORK_TARGETS	false	Allow fetching localhost/private-network targets. Keep disabled unless you intentionally need it.
RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS	60000	Rate-limit window.
RATE_LIMIT_MAX	120	Max API/feed requests per window.
DEFAULT_USER_AGENT	built in	Optional generic user-agent override.
REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS	built in	Static fetch timeout.
BROWSER_TIMEOUT_MS	built in	Browser-rendered fetch timeout.
BROWSER_WS_ENDPOINT	empty	Optional remote Chrome/Browserless endpoint for browser mode on hosted deployments.
BROWSER_WS_MODE	cdp	Use cdp for Chrome DevTools endpoints or playwright for Playwright server endpoints.
MAX_ITEMS	built in	Maximum extracted items.

Privacy And Safety

RSS Gen is designed for private local or self-hosted use:

• Binds to 127.0.0.1 by default when run directly.
• Docker Compose publishes only to 127.0.0.1:3000.
• Stores recipes and feed health data locally in DATA_DIR, or in Upstash Redis when configured.
• Blocks localhost, private IPs, link-local ranges, and internal hostnames by default.
• Validates static fetch redirects before following them.
• Blocks private-network document and subresource requests in browser mode.
• Sends no telemetry, analytics, or cloud sync.

Target websites still see the IP address of the machine, server, VPN, or proxy that fetches them. Use a trusted network-level proxy or VPN if IP anonymity matters.

Development

npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run build

The production server starts from:

npm start

Repository Topics

Recommended GitHub topics:

rss
rss-feed
rss-generator
rss-builder
feed-generator
custom-rss
visual-builder
self-hosted
local-first
docker
nextjs
react
vercel
upstash
typescript
playwright
web-scraping