blogtato

A CLI RSS/Atom feed reader inspired by Taskwarrior.

Features

• Subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds
• Simple query language for filtering by feed, read status, and date, with grouping and export
• Git-based sync across machines with conflict-free merge (why git?)
• No accounts, no servers, no continuous network dependency
• Mark content as read
• Designed to be distraction free, minimalistic and work out of the box

Install

cargo install blogtato

Git sync

git based synchronization is entire optional. blogtato can work entirely offline on a single device.

To set up git synchronization, create a private repo on your git host, then:

# On your first machine
blog clone user/repo

# From now on, sync fetches feeds and pushes/pulls from the remote
# with no remote repository, `blog sync` just pulls the latest posts from
# all feeds
blog sync

On your device(s), run the same blog clone to pull down your feeds and posts.

Don't worry about setting git sync up if you are just trying blogtato out: you can run blog clone user/repo later and your existing feeds will be merged with the remote automatically.

Quick start

Once you set up your git-based sync, or if you decided to skip it, subscribe to your favorite feeds using blog feed add:

blog feed add https://michael.stapelberg.ch
blog feed add https://www.justinmklam.com

You can import your subscriptions from other RSS readers (Feedly, Inoreader, NetNewsWire, FreshRSS, Feeder, Tiny Tiny RSS, Outlook, and others) using an OPML file:

blog feed import feeds.opml

Fetch and list latest posts:

blog sync
blog

Read whatever you found interesting by referring to its shorthand

blog df read

You can subscribe to blogtato releases to know when new features or fixes are available:

blog feed add https://github.com/kantord/blogtato/releases.atom

Usage examples

# Subscribe to a feed
blog feed add https://news.ycombinator.com/rss

# Fetch new posts and sync with git remote
blog sync

# Show posts (defaults to unread posts from the last 3 months, grouped by week)
blog

# Group by date, week, or feed
blog /d
blog /w
blog /f

# Combine groupings
blog /d /f

# Filter by feed shorthand
blog @hn

# Filter by read status
blog .unread
blog .read
blog .all

# Filter by date
blog 1w..
blog 3m..1m
blog /d 2w..1w

# Combine filters - list unread posts form HackerNews grouped by date
blog @hn .unread /d

# Open a post in the default browser
blog abc open

# Print a post URL (useful with CLI browsers)
blog abc read
w3m $(blog abc read)

# Mark a post as unread
blog abc unread

# Export matching posts as JSONL
blog .all export
blog @myblog export
blog 1w.. export

# List subscriptions
blog feed ls

# Remove a feed
blog feed rm https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
blog feed rm @hn

Design philosophy

I built blogtato around the idea of subscription detox and simplicity. I just wanted to use a simple and RSS reader that is not distracting, but can be synced between different devices seamlessly without having to set up another user account and paying another monthly subscription fee.

blogtato uses a simple database that stores data in JSONL files and syncs them using git. From a performance standpoint, this is admittedly sub-optimal, and an quite esoteric design. At the same time, if you are comfortable with CLI tools you likely have access to a remote git host such as GitHub, GitLab or a Forgejo instance: and that's all blogtato needs to be able to keep data up to date on all of your devices. From a user perspective, this just works with effectively zero configuration.

blogtato's database uses a conflict-free design: even if you have diverging changes between different devices, you will never have to manually resolve conflicts. You can forget about git being there.

Network operations are always initiated by the user. There is no need for a continuously running server. And all operations that don't strictly need network access work offline.

It is my goal to keep the feature-set and the complexity of this project down, so that it can be maintained with minimal effort and can be considered to be "done".

Optional configuration

blogtato is designed to work out of the box without any configuration. Most users should never need to change any settings. Nevertheless, a few things can be configured, when the nature of the synchronized database calls for measures to protect data consistency, or in other cases where taking advantage of the synced database for storing the configuration would be convenient.

Configuration is stored in the same git-based database as your feeds and posts, so settings automatically sync across all your devices.

Custom default query

By default, blog with no arguments shows unread posts from the last 3 months grouped by week. You can change this:

# Show posts from the past 3 months grouped by date instead
blog config set default_query '.all /d 3m..'

# Show unread posts from the last week
blog config set default_query '.unread 1w..'

# Reset to built-in default
blog config unset default_query

Ingest filter

You can configure a jq expression that transforms posts during blog sync, before they are stored. This lets you filter out unwanted content or rewrite fields. The expression receives an array of post objects and must return an array.

blogtato calls jq as an external process. It is not bundled with blogtato

• it is an optional runtime dependency, only needed if you configure an ingest_filter. When no filter is set, all posts are stored as-is.

jq was chosen over arbitrary shell scripting because feed data is structured JSON, which is difficult to manipulate correctly with most other shell tools, so users would otherwise just create shell script files that are a boilerplate wrapper over jq. jq is the standard tool for this purpose that most CLI users already have installed and are familiar with.

Also, calling an arbitrary binary/script file would be a runtime dependency that does not automatically sync to other machines, so one could easily create runtime errors or load inconsistent data in the database. Storing a jq expression in the synced database means it automatically carries over to all your devices.

# Filter out sponsored posts
blog config set ingest_filter '[.[] | select(.title | startswith("[Sponsored]") or contains("Partner Content") | not)]'

# Strip tracking parameters from links
blog config set ingest_filter '[.[] | .link |= sub("\\?utm.*"; "")]'

# Combine both: filter sponsored posts and strip tracking parameters
blog config set ingest_filter '[.[] | select(.title | startswith("[Sponsored]") or contains("Partner Content") | not) | .link |= sub("\\?utm.*"; "")]'

# Remove the filter
blog config unset ingest_filter

Each post object has these fields: title, date, link, raw_id, feed.

Naming

The naming is meant to symbolize simplicity and pragmatic silliness: I just mashed the word "blog" together with the first word I could think of: potato.

Comparison with alternatives

blogtato is relatively new and there are several good, and more mature alternatives. This section attempts to summarize how they differ from blogtato and why some users might still prefer to use blogtato instead.

Newsboat

Newsboat is a very mature TUI RSS client with a wide range of features that blogtato does not have. Just like blogtato, it supports local-only workflows.

It can also act as a client to remote servers, so if you are ok with having to self-host a server or signing up to a hosted server, then blogtato's git sync feature is not a relevant differentiator for you.

Another reason why blogtato might be relevant to you is that it has a Taskwarrior-like interface that is even more minimalistic than Newsboat.

Newsraft

Newsraft is a more minimalistic alternative to Newsboat. The Newsboat breakdown mostly applies.

FreshRSS, Miniflux & Tiny Tiny RSS

These are mature, self-hostable web-based RSS readers/aggregators. What blogtato offers in comparison is a minimalistic CLI interface and effectively zero-setup sync between different machines using git, without the need for an additional, continuously running server.

Feedly, Inoreader

These are full-featured web-based services. If you are a heavy RSS-user and like the user interfaces and features they offer (such as GUI apps for iOS and Android, content recommendations) you will likely prefer one of these options.

You could find blogtato interesting if you'd prefer a more minimalistic, distraction-free CLI interface and do not need their advanced features.