Mastofeed 📬

A Node.js library to post RSS feed items to Mastodon.

• Syncs new RSS feed items and posts them from a Mastodon bot account.
• Outputs rich, highly-customizable posts. Extract and transform any RSS item attribute.
• Type-safe and entirely built with TypeScript.

Automated post from @lapresse@mastodon.quebec displayed in Ivory

Note: This project is not related to the MastoFeed (capital F) service.

Prerequisites

Mastofeed requires that you use a Mastodon bot account and generate an access token for it.

To do so, log into your Mastodon instance with your bot account, then go to Preferences > Development and create a new application with the read:accounts, read:statuses and write:statuses scopes. Take note of the access token generated for your application.

Installation

npm install mastofeed

Usage

Instantiate a Mastofeed client, providing your Mastodon and RSS configuration.

Use the rss.postDef property to define a mapping of RSS item attributes and customize the contents of your Mastodon posts.

Basic example

import { Mastofeed } from "mastofeed";

const feed = new Mastofeed({
  mastodon: {
    instanceUrl: "https://mastodon.quebec",
    accessToken: process.env.MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN,
  },
  rss: {
    feedUrl: "https://www.lapresse.ca/manchettes/rss",
    postDef: {
      id: { path: "guid" },
      title: { path: "title" },
      linkUrl: { path: "link" },
    },
  },
});

Advanced example

import {
  Mastofeed,
  UppercaseTransform,
  BoldTransform,
  MapTransform,
  QuotationMarksTransform,
  ItalicTransform,
} from "mastofeed";

const feed = new Mastofeed({
  mastodon: {
    instanceUrl: "https://mastodon.quebec",
    accessToken: process.env.MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN,
  },
  rss: {
    feedUrl: "https://www.lapresse.ca/manchettes/rss",
    postDef: {
      id: { path: "guid" },
      kicker: { path: "title", regex: "^(.+) \\|", transforms: [new UppercaseTransform()] },
      title: { path: "title", regex: "(?!.*\\|) *(.+)?", transforms: [new BoldTransform()] },
      category: {
        path: "link",
        regex: "^https:\\/\\/www\\.lapresse\\.ca\\/(\\w+)\\/",
        transforms: [
          new MapTransform({
            actualites: "Actualités",
            affaires: "Affaires",
            auto: "Auto",
            arts: "Arts",
            cinema: "Cinéma",
            contexte: "Contexte",
            debats: "Débats",
            gourmand: "Gourmand",
            international: "International",
            maison: "Maison",
            societe: "Société",
            sports: "Sports",
            voyage: "Voyage",
          }),
        ],
      },
      description: {
        path: "contentSnippet",
        transforms: [new QuotationMarksTransform(), new ItalicTransform()],
      },
      author: { path: "dc:creator" },
      linkUrl: { path: "link" },
    },
    maxSyncedItems: 10,
  },
  logging: {
    level: "DEBUG",
    prefix: "La Presse",
  },
});

Publishing to Mastodon

Then, to post all new RSS feed items to Mastodon from your bot account:

await feed.sync();

Full project example

See Mastodon Québec Bots for a full example of a project using Mastofeed.

Privacy

Mastofeed does not collect any analytics or telemetry data.

The addition of the mfid query parameter in URLs is strictly used to prevent duplicate posts.