Elfeed is an extensible web feed reader for Emacs, supporting Atom, RSS and JSON Feed. It requires Emacs 28.1 and is available for download from MELPA or el-get. The Elfeed UI was inspired by notmuch. The database format is stable and is never expected to change.
It is /strongly/ recommended you have cURL installed, either in your PATH or
configured via elfeed-curl-program-name. Elfeed will prefer it to Emacs’ own
URL-fetching mechanism, url-retrieve. It’s also essential for running Elfeed on
Windows, where url-retrieve is broken. Updates using cURL are significantly
faster than the built-in method, both for you and the feed hosts.
If this is giving you problems, fetching with cURL can be disabled by setting
elfeed-use-curl to nil.
There are projects which extend Elfeed with additional features. The following packages have more than 5K downloads on MELPA, which hints at a certain maturity, but no guarantees for compatibility are made.
Many more extensions can be found on MELPA - here is an non-exhaustive list:
- Elfeed-related packages on MELPA
- Elfeed Android interface (Google Play)
- cuckoo-search
- elfeed-ai
- elfeed-autotag
- elfeed-curate
- elfeed-dashboard
- elfeed-summarize
- elfeed-summary
Elfeed is broken into a multiple source files, so if you manually install it you
will need to add the Elfeed package directory to your load-path. If installed
via package.el or el-get, this will be done automatically.
It is recommended that you make a global binding for elfeed.
(keymap-global-set "C-x w" #'elfeed)Running the interactive function elfeed will pop up the *elfeed-search* buffer,
which will display feed items.
g: refresh view of the feed listingG: fetch feed updates from the serverss: update the search filter (see tags)c: clear the search filter
This buffer will be empty until you add your feeds to the elfeed-feeds list and
initiate an update with M-x elfeed-update (or G in the Elfeed buffer). This will
populate the Elfeed database with entries.
;; Somewhere in your .emacs file
(setq elfeed-feeds
'("https://nullprogram.com/feed/"
"https://planet.emacslife.com/atom.xml"))Another option for providing a feed list is with an OPML file. Running M-x
elfeed-load-opml will fill elfeed-feeds with feeds listed in an OPML file. When
elfeed-load-opml is called interactively, it will automatically save the
feedlist to your customization file, so you will only need to do this once.
If there are a lot of feeds, the initial update will take noticeably longer than
normal operation because of the large amount of information being written the
database. Future updates will only need to write new or changed data. If
updating feeds slows down Emacs too much for you, reduce the number of
concurrent fetches via elfeed-set-max-connections.
If you’re getting many “Queue timeout exceeded” errors, increase the fetch
timeout via elfeed-set-timeout.
(setf url-queue-timeout 30)From the search buffer there are a number of ways to interact with entries. Entries are selected by placing the point over an entry. Multiple entries are selected at once by using an active region.
RET: view selected entry in a bufferb: open selected entries in your browser (browse-url)B: open selected entries in your secondary browsery: copy selected entries URL to the clipboardr: mark selected entries as readu: mark selected entries as unread+: add a specific tag to selected entries-: remove a specific tag from selected entriest: set title of selected entryT: set title of selected feed
Elfeed maintains a list of arbitrary tags – symbols attached to an entry. The
tag unread is treated specially by default, with unread entries appearing in
bold.
Tags can automatically be applied to entries discovered in specific feeds
through extra syntax in elfeed-feeds. Normally this is a list of strings, but an
item can also be a list, providing set of “autotags” for a feed’s entries.
(setq elfeed-feeds
'(("https://nullprogram.com/feed/" blog emacs)
"https://sachachua.com/blog/category/emacs-news/feed/" ;; no autotagging
("https://nedroid.com/feed/" webcomic)))To make tags useful, the Elfeed entry listing buffer can be filtered by tags.
Use elfeed-search-set-filter (or s) to update the filter. Use
elfeed-search-clear-filter to restore the default.
Any component of the search string beginning with a + or a - is treated like a
tag. + means the tag is required, - means the tag must not be present.
A component beginning with a @ indicates an age or a date range. An age is a
relative time expression or an absolute date expression. Entries older than this
age are filtered out. The age description accepts plain English, but cannot have
spaces, so use dashes. For example, @2-years-old, @3-days-ago or @2019-06-24.
The dashes and suffixes like -old are ignored, such that you can use a shorter
form , e.g., @2years. A date range are two ages separated by a -- e.g.,
@2019-06-20--2019-06-24 or @5-days-ago--1-day-ago. The entry must be newer than
the first expression but older than the second. The database is date-oriented,
so filters that include an age restriction are significantly more efficient.
A component beginning with a ! is treated as an “inverse” regular expression.
This means that any entry matching this regular expression will be filtered out.
The regular expression begins after the ! character. You can read this as “entry
not matching foo”.
A component beginning with a # limits the total number of entries displayed to
the number immediately following the symbol. For example, to limit the display
to 20 entries: #20.
A component beginning with a = is a regular expression matching the entry’s feed
(title or URL). Only entries belonging to a feed that matches at least one of
the = expressions will be shown.
A component beginning with a ~ is a regular expression matching the entry’s feed
(title or URL). Only entries belonging to a feed that matches none of the ~
expressions will be shown.
All other components are treated as a regular expression, and only entries matching it (title or URL) will be shown.
Here are some example filters.
@6months +unread
Only show unread entries of the last six months. This is the default filter.
linu[xs] @1-year-old
Only show entries about Linux or Linus from the last year.
-unread +youtube #10
Only show the most recent 10 previously-read entries tagged as youtube.
+unread !x?emacs
Only show unread entries not having emacs or xemacs in the title or link.
+emacs =https://example.org/feed/
Only show entries tagged as emacs from a specific feed.
You can set your default search filter by changing the default value of
elfeed-search-filter. It only changes buffer-locally when you’re adjusting the
filter within Elfeed. For example, some users prefer to have a space on the end
for easier quick searching.
(setq-default elfeed-search-filter "@1week +unread ")The last example assumes you’ve tagged posts with youtube. You probably want to
do this sort of thing automatically, either through the “autotags” feature
mentioned above, or with the elfeed-new-entry-hook. Functions in this hook are
called with new entries, allowing them to be manipulated, such as adding tags.
;; Mark all YouTube entries
(add-hook 'elfeed-new-entry-hook
(elfeed-make-tagger :feed-url "youtube\\.com"
:add '(video youtube)))Avoiding tagging old entries as unread:
;; Entries older than 2 weeks are marked as read
(add-hook 'elfeed-new-entry-hook
(elfeed-make-tagger :before "2 weeks ago"
:remove 'unread))Or building your own subset feeds:
(add-hook 'elfeed-new-entry-hook
(elfeed-make-tagger :feed-url "example\\.com"
:entry-title '(not "something interesting")
:add 'junk
:remove 'unread))Use M-x elfeed-apply-hooks-now to apply elfeed-new-entry-hook to all existing
entries. Otherwise hooks will only apply to new entries on discovery.
By default, entries marked unread will have bolded titles in the *elfeed-search*
listing. You can customize how tags affect an entry’s appearance by customizing
elfeed-search-face-alist. For example, this configuration makes entries tagged
important stand out in red.
(defface important-elfeed-entry
'((t :foreground "#f77"))
"Marks an important Elfeed entry.")
(push '(important important-elfeed-entry)
elfeed-search-face-alist)All faces from all tags will be applied to the entry title. The faces will be
ordered as they appear in elfeed-search-face-alist.
Filters can be saved and restored using Emacs’ built-in bookmarks feature. While
in the search buffer, use M-x bookmark-set to save the current filter, and M-x
bookmark-jump to restore a saved filter. Emacs automatically persists bookmarks
across sessions.
When org-store-link is called from an Elfeed search or an Elfeed entry, a link
to the search or entry is stored in Org-mode format.
This link can be inserted into an Org-mode document. If the link is opened, the search or entry will be shown in Elfeed.
In addition to the link, org-store-link also store some additional properties.
You can access them in an Org-capture template with the template expansion
%:keyword. (org-store-link is automatically called when you do a capture.)
List of available keywords, when link is stored from an Elfeed search:
type: Type of Org-mode linklink: Org-mode link to this search, also available with %a, %A, %l and %Ldescription: The search filter
List of available keywords, when link is stored from an Elfeed entry:
type: Type of Org-mode linklink: Org-mode link to this entry, also available with %a, %A, %l and %Ltitle: Feed entry titledescription: Feed entry description, same as titleexternal-link: Feed entry external linkdate: Date time of the feed entry publication, in full ISO 8601 formatdate-timestamp: Date time of the feed entry publication, in Org-mode active timestamp formatdate-inactive-timestamp: Date time of the feed entry publication, in Org-mode inactive timestamp formatauthors: List of feed entry authors names, joint by a commatags: List of feed entry tags, in Org-mode tags formatcontent: Content of the feed entryfeed-title: Title of the feedfeed-external-link: Feed external linkfeed-authors: List of feed authors names, joint by a comma
If content type is HTML, it is automatically embedded into an Org-mode HTML
quote.
All feed and entry objects have plist where you can store your own arbitrary,
readable values. These values are automatically persisted in the database. This
metadata is accessed using the polymorphic elfeed-meta function. The function is
a generalized variable, such that it is setf-able. The macro setf must have
access to the definition of elfeed-meta at compile time. Therefore you must add
a (require 'elfeed) at the top level, such that the Elisp byte compiler loads
the definition.
(require 'elfeed) ;; Necessary for macro expansion of (setf (elfeed-meta ...) ...)
(setf (elfeed-meta entry :rating) 4)
(elfeed-meta entry :rating)
;; => 4
(setf (elfeed-meta feed :title) "My Better Title")Elfeed itself adds some entries to this plist, some for your use, some for its own use. Here are the properties that Elfeed uses:
:authors: A list of author plists (:name,:uri,:email).:canonical-url: The final URL for the feed after all redirects.:categories: The feed-supplied categories for this entry.:etag: HTTP Etag header, for conditional GETs.:failures: Number of times this feed has failed to update.:last-modified: HTTP Last-Modified header, for conditional GETs.:title: Overrides the feed-supplied title for display purposes, both for feeds and entries. See alsoelfeed-search-set-feed-titleandelfeed-search-set-entry-title.
This list will grow in time, so you might consider namespacing your own properties to avoid collisions (e.g. =:xyz/rating=), or simply not using keywords as keys. Elfeed will always use keywords without a slash.
A number of hooks are available to customize the behavior of Elfeed at key points without resorting to advice.
elfeed-new-entry-hook: Called each time a new entry it added to the database, allowing for automating tagging and such.elfeed-new-entry-parse-hook: Called with each new entry and the full XML structure from which it was parsed, allowing for additional information to be drawn from the original feed XML.elfeed-http-error-hooks: Allows for special behavior when HTTP errors occur, beyond simply logging the error to the buffer namedelfeed-log-buffer-name.elfeed-parse-error-hooks: Allows for special behavior when feed parsing fails, beyond logging.elfeed-db-update-hook: Called any time the database has had a major modification.
Entries are viewed locally in Emacs by typing RET while over an entry in the
search listing. The content will be displayed in a separate buffer using
elfeed-show-mode, rendered using Emacs’ built-in shr package. This requires an
Emacs compiled with libxml2 bindings, which provides the necessary HTML parser.
Sometimes displaying images can slow down or even crash Emacs. Set
shr-inhibit-images to disable images if this is a problem.
A demonstration/toy web interface for remote network access to Elfeed exists in
a separate repository. It’s a single-page web application that follows the
database live as new entries arrive. It’s packaged separately as elfeed-web. To
fire it up, run M-x elfeed-web-start and visit http://localhost:8080/elfeed/
(check your httpd-port) with a browser. See the elfeed-web.el header for
endpoint documentation if you’d like to access the Elfeed database through the
web API.
It’s rough and unfinished – no keyboard shortcuts, read-only, no authentication, and a narrow entry viewer. This is basically Elfeed’s “mobile” interface. Patches welcome.
Summary: Install cURL and most problems disappear for all platforms.
I personally only use Elfeed on Linux, but it’s occasionally tested on Windows.
Unfortunately the Windows port of Emacs is a bit too unstable for parallel feed
downloads with url-retrieve, not to mention the tiny, hard-coded, 512 open
descriptor limitation, so it limits itself to one feed at a time on this
platform.
If you fetch HTTPS feeds without cURL on any platform, it’s essential that Emacs
is built with the --with-gnutls option. Otherwise Emacs runs gnutls in an
inferior process, which rarely works well.
The database should keep itself under control without any manual intervention,
but steps can be taken to minimize the database size if desired. The simplest
option is to run the elfeed-db-compact command, which will pack the loose-file
content database into a single compressed file. This function works well in
kill-emacs-hook.
Going further, a function could be added to elfeed-new-entry-hook to strip
unwanted/unneeded content from select entries before being stored in the
database. For example, for YouTube videos only the entry link is of interest and
the regularly-changing entry content could be tossed to save time and storage.
(defun strip-old-content ()
(let ((limit (elfeed-float-time "60 days ago")))
(elfeed-db-visit (entry feed)
(cond
((< (elfeed-entry-date entry) limit)
(elfeed-db-return))
((equal "https://example.com/feed/" (elfeed-feed-url feed))
(setf (elfeed-entry-content entry) nil))))))Elfeed is to the point where it can serve 100% of my own web feed needs. My personal selection of about 150 feeds has been acting as my test case as I optimize and add features.
Some things I still might want to add:
- Database synchronization between computers
- Parallel feed fetching via separate Emacs subprocesses
As far as I know, outside of Elfeed there does not exist an extensible, text-file configured, power-user web feed client that can handle a reasonable number of feeds. The existing clients I’ve tried are missing some important capability that limits its usefulness to me.
- Introducing Elfeed, an Emacs Web Feed Reader.
- Tips and Tricks
- Read your RSS feeds in Emacs with Elfeed
- Scoring Elfeed articles
- Using Emacs 29, 30, 31
- Take Elfeed everywhere: Mobile rss reading Emacs-style (for free/cheap)
- Elfeed Rules! (reddit)
- Elfeed with Tiny Tiny RSS (hn)
- Open Emacs elfeed links in the background
- Using Emacs 72
- Lazy Elfeed
- Using Elfeed to View Videos
- Manage podcasts in Emacs with Elfeed and Bongo
- Nullprogram Elfeed category
- Pragmaticemacs Elfeed category