blogwatcher skill

Overview

This skill installs and runs blogwatcher, a simple CLI tool to monitor blogs and RSS/Atom feeds for updates. It helps you track multiple sites, discover new articles, and manage read status from the command line. The tool is lightweight and suited for automation or manual checks.

How this skill works

blogwatcher stores a list of tracked blogs and periodically scans each source to detect new articles. It supports RSS and Atom sources and reports how many items were found and which are new. You add and remove blogs with commands, list tracked sites and articles, and mark items as read to keep the feed state tidy.

When to use it

• You maintain a personal reading list of blogs and want command-line access.
• You need a lightweight feed monitor for scripts or cron jobs.
• You want to archive or back up discovered posts from multiple sites.
• You prefer terminal-based tools over web-based feed readers.
• You require simple read/unread tracking without complex syncing.

Best practices

• Install via Go so you can update with the latest release and its flags.
• Add a clear name and the correct site URL when registering a blog to avoid duplicate or malformed feeds.
• Run scans on a schedule (cron or systemd timer) and capture output to logs for auditing.
• Use the articles command to review and read/delete items before automated archiving.
• Use read and read-all to keep state clean and avoid repeated notifications.

Example use cases

• Quickly add a new blog: add a name and URL, then scan to fetch current items.
• Weekly cron job: schedule blogwatcher scan to run and pipe results into an archiving script.
• Curate research: list articles and mark important posts read while leaving others unread for follow-up.
• Maintenance: remove defunct blogs to keep scans fast and relevant.
• Integration: embed blogwatcher scan in CI or a bot to announce new posts to a chat channel.

FAQ