# RSS Feed Discovery — Find RSS & Atom Feeds (`q_services/rss-feed-discovery`) Actor

Find RSS, Atom and JSON Feed URLs from websites using HTML discovery tags and common feed paths.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/q_services/rss-feed-discovery.md
- **Developed by:** [Q Services](https://apify.com/q_services) (community)
- **Categories:** News
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.20 / 1,000 discovered feed or audit rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## RSS Feed Discovery — Find RSS & Atom Feeds

Find RSS, Atom and JSON Feed URLs from websites.

Use it to build monitoring inputs, discover competitor content feeds, prepare automation pipelines, or enrich lists before running an RSS monitor.

**Example result:**

```json
{
    "siteUrl": "https://www.theverge.com",
    "status": "found",
    "feedUrl": "https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml",
    "feedType": "atom",
    "discoveryMethod": "common-path",
    "itemCount": 40,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-07-09T10:30:00.000Z"
}
```

### How to use it

1. Paste websites or page URLs.
2. Keep common path checks enabled for better coverage.
3. Start the Actor and export the discovered feeds.

### Pricing

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Run start | $0.005 |
| Per discovered feed or audit row | $0.0002 |

1,000 rows cost about $0.205 before Apify platform usage.

### Output fields

| Field | Type | Always present |
|---|---|---|
| `siteUrl` | URL | Yes |
| `status` | `found` or `missing` | Yes |
| `feedUrl` | URL or null | No |
| `feedType` | `rss`, `atom`, `jsonfeed`, or null | No |
| `discoveryMethod` | `html-link`, `common-path`, or null | No |
| `feedTitle` | string or null | No |
| `feedStatusCode` | number or null | No |
| `feedContentType` | string or null | No |
| `itemCount` | number | Yes |
| `scrapedAt` | ISO date | Yes |

### Limitations

- It discovers feeds; it does not parse every article. Use an RSS monitor for article extraction.
- It validates feed-looking responses only; malformed feeds may be skipped.
- It checks the URLs you provide, not an entire site crawl.

### FAQ

**How is this different from an RSS parser?**
This Actor finds feed URLs. A parser consumes those feeds and extracts articles.

**Can I schedule it?**
Yes. Schedule it to detect newly added or removed feeds across a portfolio of sites.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Websites or pages where the Actor should look for RSS, Atom or JSON feeds.

## `checkCommonPaths` (type: `boolean`):

Also try common paths such as /feed, /rss.xml, /atom.xml and /index.xml.

## `includeSitesWithoutFeeds` (type: `boolean`):

Return one audit row for sites where no feed was found.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

The Actor stops and stops charging after this many feed or audit rows.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy configuration. The default Apify Proxy works for most websites.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.theverge.com"
  ],
  "checkCommonPaths": true,
  "includeSitesWithoutFeeds": true,
  "maxResults": 1000,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.theverge.com"
    ],
    "checkCommonPaths": true,
    "includeSitesWithoutFeeds": true,
    "maxResults": 1000,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("q_services/rss-feed-discovery").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": ["https://www.theverge.com"],
    "checkCommonPaths": True,
    "includeSitesWithoutFeeds": True,
    "maxResults": 1000,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("q_services/rss-feed-discovery").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.theverge.com"
  ],
  "checkCommonPaths": true,
  "includeSitesWithoutFeeds": true,
  "maxResults": 1000,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call q_services/rss-feed-discovery --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,q_services/rss-feed-discovery"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/cuCxPjAHtz0PpFSTn/builds/1cLNVncPq0yC9Nz1o/openapi.json