RSS Feed Integration

Turn the entire web into your content research assistant. BlackOps Center's RSS integration automatically monitors feeds, filters content by language and relevance, and scores each item against your Content Reservoirs using AI.

Why RSS in 2025?

While social media algorithms decide what you see, RSS puts you back in control. You choose the sources. You set the filters. You decide what's relevant. And with BlackOps Center's AI scoring, you don't drown in content—you discover gems.

How RSS Integration Works

1. Feed Discovery

BlackOps Center makes finding RSS feeds effortless:

• Auto-Discovery: Paste any website URL and we'll scan for RSS/Atom feeds
• Common Paths: We check /feed, /rss.xml, /atom.xml, and more
• HTML Parsing: We extract feed links from <link> tags in page HTML
• Preview Before Subscribe: See recent items, estimated update frequency, and feed metadata

// Example: Discovered feeds from a blog
Feed 1: "Kent C. Dodds Blog" 
  URL: https://kentcdodds.com/blog/rss.xml
  Type: RSS 2.0
  Items: 147
  Frequency: Weekly

Feed 2: "Kent C. Dodds Newsletter"
  URL: https://kentcdodds.com/newsletter/rss.xml
  Type: Atom
  Items: 52
  Frequency: Bi-weekly

2. Intelligent Content Filtering

Not all content deserves your attention. BlackOps Center filters before it even hits your inbox:

Language Detection & Filtering

Set your preferred content languages at the site level. Our multi-heuristic language detector analyzes:

• Script Detection: Identifies Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, Japanese, Korean characters
• Pattern Matching: Recognizes common words/phrases in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian
• Confidence Scoring: Calculates language confidence from word patterns and article structure

Keyword Relevance Scoring

Connect your monitored keywords to RSS feeds. Each incoming item is scored based on keyword matches:

• Title + Description + Content: We search all text fields
• Case-Insensitive: "React" matches "react", "REACT", "React.js"
• 0-1 Score: matches / total_keywords gives you a quick relevance ratio

AI Reservoir Scoring (Auto-Magic)

Here's where it gets powerful. Every RSS item is automatically scored against all your active Content Reservoirs:

• Background Processing: Scoring happens async—no delays
• Multi-Reservoir Matching: One article might score 9/10 for "React Performance" and 6/10 for "TypeScript Patterns"
• Reasoning Included: AI explains why it matched (or didn't)
• Filterable Results: Show only items scoring 7+ for specific reservoirs

// Example AI scoring result
{
  "title": "Optimizing React Rendering with useMemo",
  "overallScore": 9.2,
  "bestMatch": {
    "reservoirId": "abc-123",
    "reservoirName": "React Performance",
    "score": 9.5,
    "reasoning": "Highly relevant - focuses on React optimization 
                  techniques, specifically useMemo for preventing 
                  unnecessary re-renders. Matches reservoir theme 
                  of performance optimization.",
    "keywordMatches": ["react", "performance", "useMemo", "rendering"]
  },
  "allMatches": [
    { "reservoir": "React Performance", "score": 9.5 },
    { "reservoir": "Frontend Architecture", "score": 7.2 },
    { "reservoir": "TypeScript Patterns", "score": 5.8 }
  ]
}

3. Metadata Enrichment

RSS feeds are inconsistent. Some include featured images, some don't. We fix that:

• Image Extraction: Pull from media:thumbnail, media:content, enclosures, or content HTML
• Fallback to OpenGraph: If no image in RSS, we fetch the URL's OG image
• Sentiment Analysis: Basic positive/negative scoring for content tone
• Reading Time: Estimated based on word count (~200 words/min)

Setting Up RSS Feeds

Step 1: Add a Feed

1. Go to Content Studio → RSS Feeds
2. Click "Add RSS Feed"
3. Enter a website URL or direct RSS feed URL
4. Review discovered feeds and select one
5. Set fetch frequency (default: 60 minutes)
6. Optionally assign to categories for organization

Step 2: Configure Language Preferences

1. Go to Settings → Site Settings
2. Under "RSS Language Filter":
3. Enable/disable language filtering
4. Select preferred languages (e.g., en, es)
5. Save settings

// Your site settings
{
  "rss_language_filter_enabled": true,
  "content_language_filter": ["en", "es"]
}

// Result: Only English and Spanish content passes through

Step 3: Connect Reservoirs

To enable AI auto-scoring, create Content Reservoirs with clear themes:

1. Go to Content Studio → Reservoirs
2. Create a reservoir (e.g., "React Performance")
3. Add keywords under Monitoring → Keywords
4. Link keywords to the reservoir

RSS items will now auto-score against this reservoir. View scores in the RSS feed reader interface.

Advanced Features

OPML Import

Migrating from another RSS reader? Import your entire feed list at once:

1. Export OPML from your current reader (Feedly, Inoreader, etc.)
2. In BlackOps Center, click "Import OPML"
3. Upload the file
4. We'll parse categories, feed URLs, and metadata
5. Optionally skip duplicates
6. Feeds are validated and imported in batches

// OPML import result
{
  "imported": 47,
  "skipped": 3,    // Already subscribed
  "failed": 2,     // Invalid feed URLs
  "results": [...]
}

Deletion Tracking

Delete an RSS item and it stays deleted. We track deletions in the deleted_content table to prevent re-import on the next feed refresh. Smart.

Rate Limiting

Feeds are fetched according to their configured frequency (default: hourly). Failed fetches increment an error counter. After 5 consecutive failures, the feed is auto-paused to prevent wasting resources.

RSS Feed Management

Reading Experience

• Read/Unread Tracking: Mark items as read, filter by unread only
• Star Important Items: Flag items for later review
• Archive: Hide items without deleting them
• Bulk Actions: Mark multiple items read, star in bulk
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Navigate with j/k, star with s, mark read with m

Feed Organization

• Categories: Group feeds (e.g., "Developer Blogs", "Industry News")
• Custom Colors: Visual organization for quick scanning
• Feed Metadata: Title, description, favicon, last update time

Technical Details

Supported Feed Formats

• RSS 2.0
• RSS 1.0 (RDF)
• Atom 1.0

Data Privacy

RSS content is fetched server-side and stored in your Supabase database. Feed subscriptions are private to your site. We don't track what you read or share data with feed publishers.

Performance

• Batch Processing: OPML imports process 5 feeds at a time
• Deduplication: GUID-based to prevent duplicate items
• Efficient Queries: Indexed by feed_id, published_at, ai_reservoir_score

Best Practices

Start Small, Scale Up

Begin with 5-10 high-quality feeds in your niche. Monitor for a week. Check AI scores. Adjust keywords. Add more feeds once the signal-to-noise ratio feels right.

Use AI Scoring Thresholds

Filter RSS items by minimum AI score (e.g., 7+). This surfaces only the most relevant content. You can always lower the threshold if you're missing things.

Regularly Prune Dead Feeds

Blogs die. Domains expire. Check your feed list monthly and remove feeds with 5+ consecutive fetch errors.

Combine RSS with Other Sources

RSS is one input. Combine it with:

• Manual bookmarks from Chrome extension
• Viral reports from social monitoring
• Email-to-reservoir for newsletters

The goal: Build a comprehensive, multi-source Content Reservoir that represents your domain expertise.

Troubleshooting

Feed Not Updating

• Check Last Fetched timestamp in feed settings
• Look for fetch errors in feed details
• Verify the feed URL is still valid (test in browser)
• Check if the feed is paused due to errors

Too Much Noise

• Raise the AI score filter threshold
• Refine your reservoir keywords to be more specific
• Enable language filtering if receiving multilingual content
• Consider unsubscribing from low-quality feeds

Missing Important Items

• Lower the AI score threshold temporarily
• Check if items are being filtered by language settings
• Verify your keywords cover the topic breadth
• Review "All Items" view (unfiltered) occasionally

Next Steps

RSS integration works best when combined with other BlackOps Center features:

• Content Reservoirs: Store and organize your curated content
• Social Monitoring: Track viral content from Twitter, Reddit, Hacker News
• Chrome Extension: Bookmark articles while browsing
• AI Content Generation: Turn reservoir content into blog posts

RSS isn't dead. It's just been waiting for AI to make it useful again.