blogwatcher

Monitor RSS/Atom feeds for new articles. Use when user asks to track blogs, news sources, or content updates. No API key needed.

Blog Watcher

Monitor blogs and news sources via RSS/Atom feeds.

When to Use

  • "Check if there's anything new on [blog]"
  • "Monitor this RSS feed for updates"
  • "What's the latest on [tech blog]?"
  • Setting up scheduled blog monitoring

Commands

Fetch an RSS Feed

curl -s "https://example.com/feed" | head -100

Common Feed URL Patterns

Most blogs have feeds at predictable URLs:

  • /feed or /rss or /atom.xml
  • /feed.xml or /index.xml
  • WordPress: /feed/
  • Medium: /feed
  • Substack: /feed

Extract Titles and Links

# Titles
curl -s "https://example.com/feed" | grep -oP '(?<=<title>).*?(?=</title>)'

# Links
curl -s "https://example.com/feed" | grep -oP '(?<=<link>).*?(?=</link>)'

JSON Feed (if available)

curl -s "https://example.com/feed/json" | jq '.items[:5] | .[] | {title, url, date_published}'

Workflow: Periodic Monitoring

  1. Find the blog's RSS feed URL
  2. Verify it works: curl -s "URL" | head -20
  3. Set up a scheduled task with schedule_task to check periodically
  4. Save last-seen entries to compare on next check

Notes

  • No API key needed
  • Works with any standard RSS 2.0 or Atom feed
  • Some sites block curl — add a User-Agent: curl -s -H "User-Agent: CianaParrot/1.0" "URL"
  • Use schedule_task for periodic monitoring