What is Rss Mcp

RSS MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server developed in TypeScript that facilitates fetching and parsing standard RSS/Atom feeds. It is particularly designed to support RSSHub feeds, providing users with an accessible tool to extract structured content from various web sources.

Use cases

The server can be utilized by language models or other MCP clients to retrieve data from diverse RSS/Atom feeds. It is especially useful for applications needing structured information from frequently updated sources, such as news, blogs, or social media platforms.

How to use

To use the RSS MCP Server, you need to clone the repository, install the dependencies, compile the TypeScript code, and run the server. Users can also configure a preferred RSSHub instance through a .env file. Integration involves adding the server entry into the MCP client’s configuration file to enable the get_feed tool.

Key features

Key features include universal feed parsing for standard RSS/Atom feeds, enhanced support for RSSHub with multi-instance support, automatic instance polling, smart URL parsing, and robust error handling. It also offers content cleaning capabilities and outputs structured JSON data.

Where to use

RSS MCP Server can be employed in various environments where content aggregation is required, such as in applications, websites, or services that need to present real-time updates from multiple sources. It is especially beneficial for developers working on projects involving news aggregation, social media feeds, or content distribution.

RSS MCP Server

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server built with TypeScript. It provides a versatile tool to fetch and parse any standard RSS/Atom feed, and also includes special support for RSSHub feeds. With this server, language models or other MCP clients can easily retrieve structured content from various web sources.

The server comes with a built-in list of public RSSHub instances and supports a polling mechanism to automatically select an available instance, significantly improving the success rate and stability of data retrieval.

✨ Features

• Universal Feed Parsing: Fetch and parse any standard RSS/Atom feed from a given URL.
• Enhanced RSSHub Support: Provides a tool named get_feed to fetch any RSSHub-supported feed via MCP, with multi-instance support.
• Multi-instance Support: Includes a list of public RSSHub instances and automatically polls to find an available service.
• Smart URL Parsing: Supports standard RSSHub URLs and a simplified rsshub:// protocol format.
• Priority Instance Configuration: Allows setting a preferred RSSHub instance via the PRIORITY_RSSHUB_INSTANCE environment variable.
• Robust Error Handling: If a request to one instance fails, it automatically tries the next one until it succeeds or all instances have failed.
• Content Cleaning: Uses Cheerio to clean the feed content and extract plain text descriptions.
• Standardized Output: Converts the fetched RSS feed into a structured JSON format.

📦 Installation

First, clone the project repository, then install the required dependencies.

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd rss-mcp
npm install

🚀 Usage

1. Build the Project

Before running, you need to compile the TypeScript code into JavaScript:

npm run build

2. Run the Server

After a successful build, start the MCP server:

npm start

The server will then communicate with the parent process (e.g., Cursor) via Stdio.

3. Configure a Priority Instance (Optional)

You can create a .env file to specify a priority RSSHub instance. This is very useful for users who have a private, stable instance.

Create a .env file in the project root directory and add the following content:

PRIORITY_RSSHUB_INSTANCE=https://my-rsshub.example.com

The server will automatically load this configuration on startup and place it at the top of the polling list.

🔧 MCP Server Configuration

To use this server with an MCP client like Cursor, you need to add it to your configuration file.

Method 1: Using npx (Recommended)

If the package is published to npm, you can use npx to run the server without a local installation. This is the easiest method.

1. Locate your MCP configuration file. (e.g., ~/.cursor/mcp_settings.json)

2. Add the following server entry:

   {
     "name": "rss",
     "command": [
       "npx",
       "rss-mcp"
     ],
     "type": "stdio"
   }
   

Method 2: Local Installation

If you have cloned the repository locally, you can run it directly with node.

1. Clone and build the project as described in the “Installation” and “Usage” sections.

2. Locate your MCP configuration file.

3. Add the following server entry, making sure to use the absolute path to the compiled index.js file:

   {
     "name": "rss",
     "command": [
       "node",
       "/path/to/your/rss-mcp/dist/index.js"
     ],
     "type": "stdio"
   }
   

   Important: Replace /path/to/your/rss-mcp/dist/index.js with the correct absolute path on your system.

After adding the configuration, restart your MCP client (e.g., Cursor) for the changes to take effect. The rss server will then be available, and you can call the get_feed tool.

🛠️ Tool Definition

get_feed

Fetches and parses an RSS feed from a given URL. It supports both standard RSS/Atom feeds and RSSHub feeds.

Input Parameters

• url (string, required): The URL of the RSS feed to fetch. Two formats are supported:
  1. Standard URL: https://rsshub.app/bilibili/user/dynamic/208259
  2. rsshub:// protocol: rsshub://bilibili/user/dynamic/208259 (the server will automatically match an available instance)

Output

Returns a JSON string containing the feed information, with the following structure:

{
  "title": "bilibili User Dynamics",
  "link": "https://space.bilibili.com/208259",
  "description": "bilibili User Dynamics",
  "items": [
    {
      "title": "[Dynamic Title]",
      "description": "Plain text content of the dynamic...",
      "link": "https://t.bilibili.com/1234567890",
      "guid": "https://t.bilibili.com/1234567890",
      "pubDate": "2024-05-20T12:30:00.000Z",
      "author": "Author Name",
      "category": [
        "Category1",
        "Category2"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

📜 Main Dependencies

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk: For building the MCP server.
• axios: For making HTTP requests.
• rss-parser: For parsing RSS/Atom feeds.
• cheerio: For parsing and manipulating HTML content.
• date-fns-tz: For handling time-zone-related date formatting.
• dotenv: For loading environment variables from a .env file.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.