Are you tired of complex RSS aggregators that require a database and endless configuration? So here is one minimalist solution which will make you rediscover the pleasure of technological monitoring. It’s called TinyFeedand it’s a command line tool that turns your RSS feeds into a nice static web page.
In the great Unix tradition of “do just one thing, but do it well”, TinyFeed takes a refreshing approach: no database, no convoluted configuration, just a command-line tool that does exactly what you need. The tool takes as input a list of feed URLs (RSS, Atom or JSON) and generates a single, lightweight and accessible HTML page. The result is similar to what you might find on sites like Hacker News or Lobste.rs – a clean interface that lets you focus on what matters: the content.
Setup is quick… Let’s say you want to aggregate some of your favorite tech blogs including https://korben.info/feed. Here’s how to do it:
- Download the binary corresponding to your system from the releases page
- Make it executable:
chmod +x tinyfeed - Create a text file with your feed URLs, one per line
- Run the command:
cat feeds.txt | tinyfeed > index.html
And there you have it! You now have a web page that aggregates all your favorite feeds. TinyFeed hides some particularly well-thought-out features like the ability to customize the appearance of your page with an external CSS style sheet. A dark/light theme automatically activates according to system preferences – because even minimalists have the right to be stylish!
To automate the updating of your page, TinyFeed also offers a particularly practical daemon mode. No need to worry about the freshness of your content, the tool takes care of it for you:
tinyfeed --daemon -i feeds.txt -o index.html -I 720
This command updates your page every 12 hours (720 minutes). You can even integrate it with systemd for automatic startup when your machine boots. For Docker fans, an official image is available and your Docker compose file should have this header:
services: tinyfeed: image: thebigroomxxl/tinyfeed command: --daemon -i feeds.txt -o index.html volumes: - ./dev:/app restart: unless-stopped There is no shortage of customization options. You can set the maximum number of articles to display (--limit), the title of the page (--name), a description (--description), the number of simultaneous requests (--requests), or the query timeout (--timeout)
For the more adventurous, TinyFeed even supports the use of custom Go templates. This allows you to completely adapt the appearance and structure of your page to your needs.
To see TinyFeed in action, I invite you to take a look at the demo available at https://feed.lovergne.dev/. This is the best way to get an idea of what the tool can produce.
In short, whether you’re a fan of the command line or simply looking for a lightweight solution to follow your favorite RSS feeds, TinyFeed is definitely worth your attention.
Many thanks to Lorenper for sharing this excellent find!
Check out TinyFeed on GitHub
