blogwatcher

/home/avalon/.hermes/skills/research/blogwatcher/SKILL.md · raw

Blogwatcher

Track blog and RSS/Atom feed updates with the blogwatcher-cli tool. Supports automatic feed discovery, HTML scraping fallback, OPML import, and read/unread article management.

Installation

Pick one method:

Go: go install github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/cmd/blogwatcher-cli@latest
Docker: docker run --rm -v blogwatcher-cli:/data ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli
Binary (Linux amd64): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli
Binary (Linux arm64): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_linux_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli
Binary (macOS Apple Silicon): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli
Binary (macOS Intel): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli

All releases: https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases

Docker with persistent storage

By default the database lives at ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db. In Docker this is lost on container restart. Use BLOGWATCHER_DB or a volume mount to persist it:

# Named volume (simplest)
docker run --rm -v blogwatcher-cli:/data -e BLOGWATCHER_DB=/data/blogwatcher-cli.db ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

# Host bind mount
docker run --rm -v /path/on/host:/data -e BLOGWATCHER_DB=/data/blogwatcher-cli.db ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

Migrating from the original blogwatcher

If upgrading from Hyaxia/blogwatcher, move your database:

mv ~/.blogwatcher/blogwatcher.db ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db

The binary name changed from blogwatcher to blogwatcher-cli.

Common Commands

Managing blogs

Add a blog: blogwatcher-cli add "My Blog" https://example.com
Add with explicit feed: blogwatcher-cli add "My Blog" https://example.com --feed-url https://example.com/feed.xml
Add with HTML scraping: blogwatcher-cli add "My Blog" https://example.com --scrape-selector "article h2 a"
List tracked blogs: blogwatcher-cli blogs
Remove a blog: blogwatcher-cli remove "My Blog" --yes
Import from OPML: blogwatcher-cli import subscriptions.opml

Scanning and reading

Scan all blogs: blogwatcher-cli scan
Scan one blog: blogwatcher-cli scan "My Blog"
List unread articles: blogwatcher-cli articles
List all articles: blogwatcher-cli articles --all
Filter by blog: blogwatcher-cli articles --blog "My Blog"
Filter by category: blogwatcher-cli articles --category "Engineering"
Mark article read: blogwatcher-cli read 1
Mark article unread: blogwatcher-cli unread 1
Mark all read: blogwatcher-cli read-all
Mark all read for a blog: blogwatcher-cli read-all --blog "My Blog" --yes

Environment Variables

All flags can be set via environment variables with the BLOGWATCHER_ prefix:

Variable	Description
`BLOGWATCHER_DB`	Path to SQLite database file
`BLOGWATCHER_WORKERS`	Number of concurrent scan workers (default: 8)
`BLOGWATCHER_SILENT`	Only output "scan done" when scanning
`BLOGWATCHER_YES`	Skip confirmation prompts
`BLOGWATCHER_CATEGORY`	Default filter for articles by category

Example Output

$ blogwatcher-cli blogs
Tracked blogs (1):

  xkcd
    URL: https://xkcd.com
    Feed: https://xkcd.com/atom.xml
    Last scanned: 2026-04-03 10:30

$ blogwatcher-cli scan
Scanning 1 blog(s)...

  xkcd
    Source: RSS | Found: 4 | New: 4

Found 4 new article(s) total!

$ blogwatcher-cli articles
Unread articles (2):

  [1] [new] Barrel - Part 13
       Blog: xkcd
       URL: https://xkcd.com/3095/
       Published: 2026-04-02
       Categories: Comics, Science

  [2] [new] Volcano Fact
       Blog: xkcd
       URL: https://xkcd.com/3094/
       Published: 2026-04-01
       Categories: Comics

Notes

Auto-discovers RSS/Atom feeds from blog homepages when no --feed-url is provided.
Falls back to HTML scraping if RSS fails and --scrape-selector is configured.
Categories from RSS/Atom feeds are stored and can be used to filter articles.
Import blogs in bulk from OPML files exported by Feedly, Inoreader, NewsBlur, etc.
Database stored at ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db by default (override with --db or BLOGWATCHER_DB).
Use blogwatcher-cli <command> --help to discover all flags and options.