Syndicationd

synd is a terminal feed reader for RSS and Atom.

It lets you subscribe to feeds, browse entries, filter them by priority, category, and keyword, and open entries in your browser.

Subscriptions, entries, and reading state are stored in SQLite by default.

This repository is named syndicationd. The terminal application is installed as synd.

Table of Contents:

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Usage
  • Keymap
  • Subscribe Feed
  • Edit or Unsubscribe Feed
  • Filter Feeds and Entries
  • Open Feed Entry
  • Import and Export Feeds
  • Clean
• Configuration
• Documentation
• Advanced
• Development
• Project Goals
• Feed Tips
• License

Installation

Install from crates.io:

cargo install synd-term --locked

Other package managers, installers, and pre-built binaries are also supported.

Show all installation methods

nix

nix profile install github:ymgyt/syndicationd/synd-term-v0.3.2

arch linux

pacman -S syndicationd

brew

brew install ymgyt/homebrew-syndicationd/synd-term

shell

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/ymgyt/syndicationd/releases/download/synd-term-v0.3.2/synd-term-installer.sh | sh

npm

npm install @syndicationd/synd-term

powershell

powershell -c "irm https://github.com/ymgyt/syndicationd/releases/download/synd-term-v0.3.2/synd-term-installer.ps1 | iex"

docker

docker run -it ghcr.io/ymgyt/synd-term

pre-built binaries

Pre-built binaries are available in GitHub releases.

source

cargo install --git https://github.com/ymgyt/syndicationd/ synd-term

Use the source install to try the current main branch behavior before the next release.

Note

synd requires Nerd Fonts to be installed on your system for rendering icons.

Quick Start

Start the TUI:

synd

To add a feed, switch to the Feeds tab with Tab, press a, and enter one subscription line in the editor:

MUST rust https://this-week-in-rust.org/atom.xml

Select an entry and press Enter to open it in your web browser. Press Space to open it with the configured text browser command.

Usage

Run synd --help to see the full command and option list.

synd lets you:

• subscribe to RSS/Atom feeds
• open entries in your web browser or a text browser
• filter feeds and entries by priority, category, and keyword

Keymap

Basic keys:

• Tab: switch tabs
• a: add a feed on the Feeds tab
• Enter: open the selected entry
• Space: open the selected entry with the configured text browser command
• /: search entries
• q: quit

See docs/mdbook/src/keymap.md for the full keymap and custom key binding syntax.

Subscribe Feed

To subscribe to a feed, switch to the Feeds tab with Tab, then press a. synd uses edit to launch your editor. Enter the feed in this format:

Requirement Category URL

When you close the editor, the feed is saved to the local SQLite database by default.

Requirement

Requirement is the priority of the feed.

It uses the names MUST, SHOULD, and MAY by analogy with RFC2119.

It can be one of:

• MUST: most important
• SHOULD: normal priority
• MAY: low priority

Category

Category represents the category of the feed. You can specify any value. The values that synd recognizes as categories are defined in categories.toml. Default values and additional categories can be added from the configuration file.

Edit or Unsubscribe Feed

To change the requirement or category of a feed, select it in the Feeds tab and press e.

To unsubscribe from a feed, select it and press d.

Filter Feeds and Entries

Feeds and entries can be filtered as follows.

By requirement

To filter by requirement, press h or l. If the filter is MUST, only MUST feeds and entries are displayed. If it is SHOULD, MUST and SHOULD feeds and entries are displayed. If it is MAY, all feeds and entries are displayed.

By categories

To filter by category, press c. This shows keys for toggling each category. Press - to deactivate all categories. Press + to activate all categories.

You can exit category filter mode by pressing Esc. The icons for categories can be specified in categories.toml.

Open Feed Entry

To open a feed entry in a web browser, select the entry and press Enter. To view the entry in a text browser within the terminal, press Space. The command used by Space can be specified with the $SYND_BROWSER environment variable, or through related flags or configuration files. The command is executed as $SYND_BROWSER $SYND_BROWSER_ARGS <entry url>.

Import and Export Feeds

Export subscriptions as JSON and import the same format:

synd feed export > feeds.json
synd feed import feeds.json

Print the JSON schema when needed:

synd feed export --print-schema
synd feed import --print-schema

Remove cache and logs

synd clean removes known cache files and logs. Use --cache or --logs to limit the target.

synd clean
synd clean --cache
synd clean --logs

The cache directory itself is preserved, and only known cache files are removed. synd clean does not remove the local SQLite database. Database operations are handled separately from cache/log cleanup.

Configuration

Configuration can be set with flags, environment variables, or a config file.

See docs/mdbook/src/configuration.md for config file locations, available settings, and keymap customization.

Documentation

• Configuration
• Keymap
• GitHub Notifications

Advanced

GitHub Notifications

GitHub notification support is optional and separate from the feed reader workflow. See docs/github-notifications.md for setup, keymap, and token scope details.

Development

Please refer to CONTRIBUTING.md to get started with development.

Project Goals

• Terminal-first feed reader. Build a feed reader for terminal users. No recommendations, no curation, no behavior analysis.

• Local storage by default. Store subscriptions and feed state in SQLite by default.

• Long-term maintenance. Prefer simple designs and stable dependencies so the project can be maintained for years.

Feed Tips

A few sources expose useful feeds:

• Add openrss.org/ to the beginning of the URL to get its RSS feed. for example, for https://example.ymgyt.io, it would be https://openrss.org/example.ymgyt.io

• You can retrieve various updates as feeds on GitHub.

  • To obtain releases of a repository, specify releases.atom. for example, to obtain releases of syndicationd, specify https://github.com/ymgyt/syndicationd/releases.atom
  • For tags, it's https://github.com/ymgyt/syndicationd/tag.atom

• crates.io has introduced a couple of experimental RSS feeds

• Adding .rss to the end of a Reddit URL allows you to retrieve the feed. for example, for https://www.reddit.com/r/HelixEditor/, it would be https://www.reddit.com/r/HelixEditor.rss

License

This project is available under the terms of either the Apache 2.0 license or the MIT license.