# Argentos Blogwatcher > Monitor blogs and RSS/Atom feeds for updates using the blogwatcher-cli tool. Add blogs, scan for new articles, track read status, and filter by category. - Skill: `argentaios/argentos-blogwatcher` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add argentaios/argentos-blogwatcher` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/argentaios/argentos-blogwatcher/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Research & Search - License: MIT - Author: argentaios (https://skillmd.com/u/argentaios) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/argentaios/argentos-blogwatcher --- # 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: ```bash # 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: ```bash 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 ``` ## Python RSS Fallback + Cron Watcher Use this when `blogwatcher-cli` is not installed, when the site blocks browser access with Cloudflare, or when you need a self-contained scheduled digest. Medium author pages may show a bot challenge in the browser, but their RSS feed is often still accessible at: ```text https://medium.com/feed/@USERNAME ``` Pattern: 1. Fetch the feed directly with `urllib.request` and a normal User-Agent. 2. Parse RSS with `xml.etree.ElementTree`. 3. For Medium full text, read `content:encoded` (`http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/`). 4. Strip HTML to cleaned text. 5. Store seen GUIDs in a state file under `~/.hermes/state/`. 6. Put the script in `~/.hermes/scripts/` and schedule it with `cronjob`; cron `script` paths must be relative to `~/.hermes/scripts/`, not absolute paths. Minimal script shape: ```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 import html, json, re, urllib.request, xml.etree.ElementTree as ET from pathlib import Path FEED_URL = "https://medium.com/feed/@USERNAME" STATE_PATH = Path.home() / ".hermes" / "state" / "medium_seen.json" def clean(raw): raw = re.sub(r"", "\n", raw or "", flags=re.I) raw = re.sub(r"", "\n", raw, flags=re.I) txt = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", " ", raw) txt = html.unescape(txt) txt = re.sub(r"\n\s*\n+", "\n", txt) txt = re.sub(r"[ \\t]+", " ", txt) return txt.strip() req = urllib.request.Request(FEED_URL, headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}) root = ET.fromstring(urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=30).read()) ns = {"content": "http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"} items = [] for item in root.find("channel").findall("item"): encoded = item.find("content:encoded", ns) content = clean(encoded.text if encoded is not None else "") guid = item.findtext("guid") or item.findtext("link") or item.findtext("title") items.append({ "guid": guid, "title": item.findtext("title") or "Untitled", "link": item.findtext("link") or "", "published": item.findtext("pubDate") or "", "content": content, "word_count": len(content.split()), }) STATE_PATH.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True) seen = set() if STATE_PATH.exists(): seen = set(json.loads(STATE_PATH.read_text()).get("seen", [])) new_items = [i for i in items if i["guid"] not in seen] STATE_PATH.write_text(json.dumps({"feed_url": FEED_URL, "seen": sorted(seen | {i["guid"] for i in items})}, indent=2)) print(f"Total articles in feed: {len(items)}") print(f"New articles since last run: {len(new_items)}") for article in new_items: print("\n" + "=" * 80) print(article["title"]) print(article["link"]) print(article["published"]) print(article["content"]) ``` Schedule it: ```python cronjob(action="create", name="Follow Medium feed", schedule="every 24h", script="medium_seen.py", # relative to ~/.hermes/scripts/ prompt="The pre-run script prints any new articles. If none, say so exactly. If new articles exist, read them fully and produce a digest with summary, key claims, implications, critique, and follow-up questions.", deliver="origin", enabled_toolsets=["web"]) ``` ## 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 --help` to discover all flags and options.