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Feeds

A native feed reader — RSS, Atom, Tumblr, and Are.na — with its own web tab and per-user SQLite store. There is no external service; the poller, the store, and the reader are all in-tree (src/istota/feeds/).

The feeds module is on by default. Opt out per user with disabled_modules = ["feeds"].

Reading

The Feeds tab is a masonry card grid with an image/text filter, sort by published or added, grid and list views, a navigable image lightbox, and a click-to-expand reader overlay showing a card's full un-clipped content with ←/→ navigation between posts.

The sidebar scopes the view to everything, unread only, a single feed, or a whole category. Per-entry starring is bound to f; bulk mark-as-read (Shift-A) honours whatever scope is active rather than clearing the whole account. Entries mark themselves read after 1.5 seconds in the viewport.

Video embedded in a post plays inline with ordinary controls. Nothing autoplays — a grid of cards all starting at once is not what scrolling a reader asks for — and the image/text filter hides inline video along with pictures, since a filter that left clips playing would only mean "some of the media". Embeds resolve through a host allowlist (YouTube, youtube-nocookie, Vimeo) rather than passing a provider's own iframe HTML through the sanitizer.

Repeat images

As a reblogged photo travels through the blogs you follow, the same picture arrives several times. A duplicate inside one post is dropped, and across posts an image a newer entry already showed is hidden on the older ones — the post still appears, with a note counting what was hidden.

This is a display-time decision, never a row mutation, and it is bounded two ways: to a look-back window (image_dedupe_window_days, default 14, 0 = off) and to the slice you are currently viewing. An image resurfacing months later still shows, and browsing one blog never hides a tile because of something in another.

Subscriptions

Manage subscriptions, categories, and OPML import/export from the sprocket-icon settings page, or from the skill CLI:

istota-skill feeds list                      # subscribed feeds
istota-skill feeds categories                # categories
istota-skill feeds entries                   # entries
istota-skill feeds add URL                   # subscribe
istota-skill feeds remove ID                 # unsubscribe
istota-skill feeds refresh                   # mark feeds due for the next poll
istota-skill feeds poll                      # poll everything due, now
istota-skill feeds import-opml PATH
istota-skill feeds export-opml

run-scheduled is the scheduler's entry point, not something to run by hand.

Are.na runs on the v3 API. Six block types have typed builders (Text, Image, Link, Embed, Attachment, Channel) over a generic fallback, so a type Are.na adds later still renders rather than breaking the poll.

Storage

Per-user feeds.db at Config.module_db_path(user_id, "feeds"), with tables feed_categories, feeds, feed_entries, entry_images, and schema_meta. Settings live as rows keyed under feeds_settings.* — default_poll_interval_minutes and image_dedupe_window_days.

A poll refreshes an entry it already holds rather than discarding it, so a provider-side fix reaches entries already on file. User state (read status, starred, starred timestamp) is never overwritten, and a field is only replaced by a non-empty value, so a sparser re-fetch cannot blank a title you already have. The "N new" count still counts only genuinely new inserts.

  • Briefings — an rss briefing source reads from the same subscriptions.
  • Web interface — where the Feeds tab sits in the nav.