rss-watcher-cli

A fast, TypeScript-native RSS/JSON feed reader with a built-in MCP server. Built on Bun and SQLite.

Why rss-watcher-cli over blogwatcher-cli?

| | rss-watcher-cli | blogwatcher-cli | | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------- | | Runtime | Bun (fast, single binary) | Go | | MCP server | ✅ Built-in (mcp command) | ❌ | | AI-agent integration | Tools for adding feeds, pulling articles, marking read/unread — all callable by LLMs | None | | Transport | stdio | N/A | | Feed formats | RSS & JSON Feed | RSS | | HTML sanitization | Strips tags & limits content length automatically | Raw HTML |

The headline feature is the MCP server: run rss-watcher-cli mcp and any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, custom agents) can manage your feeds and read articles programmatically.

Installation

bun install

Usage

$ rss-watcher-cli <command> [options]

Managing feeds

# Add a feed
rss-watcher-cli add https://example.com/feed.xml
rss-watcher-cli add https://example.com/feed.xml --name "My Blog"

# Remove a feed by name or URL
rss-watcher-cli remove "My Blog"
rss-watcher-cli remove https://example.com/feed.xml

# List all tracked blogs
rss-watcher-cli blogs

Reading articles

# Pull new articles from all feeds
rss-watcher-cli pull

# List unread articles
rss-watcher-cli articles

# List all articles (including read)
rss-watcher-cli articles --all

# Filter by blog name or date
rss-watcher-cli articles --blog "My Blog"
rss-watcher-cli articles --since 2025-01-01
rss-watcher-cli articles --since 24h
rss-watcher-cli articles --limit 10

# Mark articles as read/unread
rss-watcher-cli read 42
rss-watcher-cli unread 42
rss-watcher-cli read-all

MCP server

# Start the MCP server over stdio
rss-watcher-cli mcp

The MCP server exposes these tools to AI agents:

| Tool | Description | | --------------- | ------------------------------------- | | add_feed | Add a new RSS or JSON feed | | remove_feed | Remove a feed by name or URL | | pull_feeds | Pull updates for all feeds | | list_blogs | List all tracked blogs | | list_articles | List articles (with optional filters) | | mark_read | Mark an article as read | | mark_unread | Mark an article as unread | | mark_all_read | Mark all articles as read |

Global options

--db <path>    Set a custom database path
-h, --help     Display help
-v, --version  Display version number

Development

# Run the CLI
bun run cli

# Start the MCP server
bun run mcp

# Lint, format, and type-check
bun run check

# Generate database migrations
bun run db:generate